Death Valley National Park: One-Day Itinerary

In November 2024, our family visited our 10th U.S. National Park. We took a day trip from Las Vegas to Death Valley National Park.

Honestly, my family questioned my excitement (and likely my sanity) to visit the park. I’m sure they felt it was a vast wasteland with no redeeming qualities.

They, however, really enjoyed our visit. My son anointed Death Valley as his favorite National Park we had visited.

We enjoyed opportunities to explore the land that is among the driest, hottest, and lowest points on the globe. And we found amazing beauty.

Since we did all the hard work for you (I did the hard work, my family was simply along for the ride), here is our one-day itinerary for visiting Death Valley National Park.

Entering the Park

Our one-day drive took us from Las Vegas to Pahrump, Nevada to the park entrance. The drive took just under two hours before entering this East Entrance to the park.

We left Las Vegas early in the morning. If you plan a one-day trip to Death Valley from Las Vegas, I would suggest an early start. Death Valley is huge. There is a lot of driving within the park, with most sites being miles away from each other. So, the earlier you start out, the better. This was still an all-day 12-hour adventure for us.

Once we entered the park, we were able to pay for our parking pass at a kiosk. There also were bathrooms here.

Dante’s View

After entering Death Valley National Park, our family headed up to Dante’s View for a spectacular overlook of the valley and mountain range.

Dante’s view is a detour from the main roads throughout the park. It is a 20 mile drive from the primary road in the area. So, a trip to Dante’s Peak, while impressive, does take some time out of your day. Since we departed Las Vegas so early in the day, we had a chance to make this enjoyable detour.

Dante’s View is named for the author of The Inferno, Dante Aligierhi. His literary vision of Hell conjured what Death Valley looks like to many visitors.

From Dante’s View, we could see the valley below, including Badwater Basin, as well as the towering mountain range to the west of the park boundary. It is a stunning contrast to see in person.

The final approach to Dante’s Peak is a steeply inclined road with plenty of sharp switchbacks. Drive slowly and cautiously.

Our Park Guide

During our time in the park, we listened to the Shaka Guide for information about the sites we visited and general history of the park. Shaka Guide is a audio guide with  stories triggered by GPS. So your Shaka storyteller weaves stories during your drive as you move past each coordinate.

We have used the Shaka Guide on many of our travels and highly recommend the app. Shaka Guide has a growing list of locales to download (focusing more and more on National Park Sites).

The long drive ascending and descending Dante’s View gave us time to hear many intriguing stories about the park, including stories of gold, grifters, and more.

Shaka Guide has dozens of travel guides. We are an affiliate of Shaka Guide, meaning your purchase of any Shaka Guide travelogue provides us a small commission at no additional cost to you.

Zabriskie Point

Our next stop at Death Valley National Park was at Zabriskie Point.

From the parking lot, a short hike up a steep hill led us to the point where we admired the colorful and intricate formations.

Zabriskie Point was famously featured on the album cover of U2’s Joshua Tree album.

Our daughter, an aspiring photographer, spent much of our one day at the park behind a lens, taking multiple pictures. She actually put me to shame. The family usually complains about me stopping too frequently to get one more picture. Now, I have some competition.

Devil’s Golf Course

After Zabriskie Point, our family drove to the Devil’s Golf Course at @deathvalleynps

OK. Full disclosure. My family really anticipated driving to a real golf course with well manicured grass and water traps. I think they were ready to throw me out of the car when we drove down a bumpy dirt road to the jagged salt valley named the Devil’s Golf Course.

However, this was one of our favorite stops during our day trip. You can hear the crackling of the salt formations (it sounds a little like Pop Rocks exploding in your mouth).

The Devil’s Golf Course makes for some great pictures too. While at the site, we saw one man get out of his convertible car, grab a golf club, and make his way to the formations for some fun pictures. Yes, I made a mental note of the clever props for a future visit.

Badwater Basin

Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level is the lowest point in North America, and one of the lowest spots in the world.

This was our next stop on our one-day journey through Death Valley National Park.

We didn’t spend a lot of time walking around the basin, saving that for another trip.

I loved looking from this low point to the distant mountain peaks, some well over 10,000 feet above sea level.

Also, once you step out on to the basin, you can look back at the parking area, and the rocky cliffs beyond. If you look closely, you’ll see a mark on that cliffside. The mark denotes sea level, so you can grasp how far below that point you really are.

Artist’s Palette Drive

Artist’s Palette drive surrounded us with otherworldly splashes of color.

The drive brought one unexpected delight after another. The colors and formations are mesmerizing. This is definitely not what my family expected to see while touring Death Valley.

The drive takes about 20-minutes, with no stops on a twisting, winding road. About half way through the drive, my wife said we should have taken a video of the drive to share on a time lapse. A great thought. We’ll need to return to the park some day and do this very thing.

A fun side note: this area also is featured in Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope. Our family enjoyed walking on the same ground that C3PO and R2D2 traversed on Tatooine.

This drive is a one-way road. The best way to make the drive is to first visit Badwater Basin and then to enter the one-way road on your drive back toward Furnace Creek.

Furnace Creek Visitor’s Center

After many stops at Death Valley National Park, we finally made our way to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center.

Death Valley has the highest temperature ever recorded. While some dispute the validity of the recording, there’s no doubt that the park is hot.

We visited during late November, so temperatures were moderate, as you can see here. That, however, creates a great opportunity to speak about the harsh conditions at the park. It is hot most of the year. Even a little rain can cause significant flash flooding with the parched conditions.

While we visited during a cooler time of year, it is still wise and advisable to be prepared. Drive in with the water you’ll need for your day. Your vehicle could become overheated, so be prepared. There are few gas stations or resources within the park limits. It is smart to have mapped out your time at the park and to know where resources are located should you need them

At the Visitor Center, I collected another passport stamp. The kids also purchased their own passports for future travels.

Before hitting up the visitors center, we stopped in Furnace Creek (about a mile from the visitors center) for lunch at a nearby soda shop. Furnace Creek is going to be your primary spot for food, gas, and shopping.

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

Our final stop during our one-day road trip to @deathvalleynps was Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. The dunes are also featured in Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope.

The dunes reminded us of the desolate and stark terrain we drove through during our day at the park. We saw great beauty. And, we also saw the effects of this brutal landscape. We passed areas still closed to visitors after tragic flooding at the park more than two years before.

Our stop at Mesquite Flats was brief. It had been a long day with a lot of driving and stops. The park is the largest national park in the continental U.S. By this last stop, our family felt the effects of that large square mileage.

Leaving the Park

After departing Mesquite Flat, we set out to leave the park, exiting toward Beatty, Nevada and the Rhyolite Ghost Town (oh, if only we had more time to explore the ghost town).

I would suggest making a trip to Beatty, because you are sure to see wild burros. We saw plenty when we drove through Beatty on our way back to Las Vegas. This also gave us a chance to return to Vegas along a different highway to see more of the Nevada desert.

Our return on US 95 also gave us a chance to drive near Area 51. We didn’t spot aliens, but we spotted many stores and gas stations with alien statues.

Our Take

I had researched Death Valley National Park before our trip. I knew that I needed to have a plan for a very busy day.

My family did not research the park and had little idea what they would see or what to expect. I did show them pictures of Artists Palette so they knew I wasn’t simply driving them to the middle of nowhere.

However, even with all of my prior research, I was surprised by the beauty we found throughout the park. And we only explored a small portion of the site. We all mentioned return trips to stargaze (it’s one of the darkest places in the U.S. making for optimal night views).

There were segments of the park that we simply did not have time for in a one-day visit.

But, I did try to pack in as much as we could into that one day. I think we felt we got to see a good representation of what Death Valley National Park represents. But there’s so much more to see and do.

You May Also Enjoy:

This isn’t our first National Park Sand Dunes. Take a look at sledding at Great Sand Dunes.

We explored other colorful formations, including the hoodoos at Colorado’s Paint Mines Interpretive Park.

You’ll find more burros and otherworldly landscapes in South Dakota’s National Parks.

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