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First Impressions of Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is infamous. From its raging heat to its barren landscape, its reputation shapes whatever you might think of this place. Some of those rumors and second-hand experiences might be true, but nothing can prepare you for your first visit.
Driving from our home in North Hollywood, it was a four-and-a-half-hour drive to the park’s entrance. Hoping to escape the heat, we chose to visit in December. Even in late fall, the temperature still landed between 75 and 80 degrees.
As you leave the coastal landscape of the Los Angeles basin and head northeast toward the park, which sits near the Nevada border, the view outside your window begins to change rapidly. Green lawns and palm trees slowly begin to fade. The landscape morphs into something more mountainous, arid, ominous, and sparsely populated. Driving toward the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, I was both excited and shocked by the change I witnessed through my windshield.
Nothing can prepare you for the sheer size of Death Valley National Park. Coming in at 3,000 square miles (about twice the size of Rhode Island), the park is vast, open, and contains more to see and do than you can imagine.
On this trip, we headed toward Golden Canyon, Gower Gulch, and the Badlands Loop. For some odd reason, I wanted to hike through a…