**Update: We have returned from our Las Vegas Road Trip and share our entire journey and experiences if you follow this link. Continue to read this post if you want all of the planning considerations for the final day of our trip.**
Death Valley is the last National Park that we will visit on our Vegas Road Trip before spending a few nights in “Sin City”. Join our email list to follow along on our journey and to pick up tips and experiences that will help you to plan your own Vegas National Park Road Trip.
We are planning to make several stops in quick succession on the way to Death Valley, so it will be critical for us to be focused on our timeline in order to get to spend the better part of the day at the park. This is a logistics heavy post, and on days with multiple stops along a tight schedule, I would be lost without mapping out the plan in a more technical fashion. Here goes nothing!
Waking up in Boulder City
After an exciting day visiting the Grand Canyon, our road trip picks up in Boulder City, Nevada. Boulder City is, among other things, located near the first stops of the day: Hoover Dam and Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
Our Plan to Visit Hoover Dam
The hotel that we will be staying at offers breakfast, so we will enjoy the most important meal of the day, and then head over to Hoover Dam. We couldn’t visit this area without planning to spend at least a little time at Hoover Dam. Assuming that we are able to tour the dam at Glen Canyon during our stay in Page, AZ, we will likely skip the tour of Hoover Dam. Passing on the tour will allow us to get an earlier start to the day as the tours of this engineering marvel begin at 9am, but the dam is open to the public beginning at 5am.
The earlier that we get to Hoover Dam, the better off we will be for spending the bulk of the day in Death Valley. My hope is that we arrive at Hoover Dam somewhere in the realm of 7:30am. This will allow us some time to walk out and be in awe at the sheer size and power of the dam.
Our Plan to Visit Lake Mead National Recreation Area
Just minutes from Hoover Dam is the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Our stop here will be quick as well. As a book end on our “shelf of time”, the Alan Bible Visitor Center at Lake Mead opens at 9am. I am hoping that we are among the first visitors received for the day so that we can get our stamps (for both Lake Mead and Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument), wander through the Visitor Center, and hit the road for Death Valley.
I mentioned that the earlier we are able to see Hoover Dam, the better. This is because, lakes (and any places near water really) are some of my favorite places to visit. That being said, I know that our time at Lake Mead will be short, but I would love to spend at least a few minutes by the water.
Because the Visitor Center opens at 9am, I’m hoping that we would be at the lake to spend at least a half an hour or so actually getting to see the Lake. I would love to get in some fishing when we are here, but given the time constraints for this leg of the trip we will either have to spend one of our Vegas days revisiting Lake Mead, or save what promises to be a fulfilling fishing excursion for a future trip to the area.
We have an approximately 3 hour drive between Lake Mead and Death Valley, so our time in the Visitor Center will have to be short in order for us to arrive at Death Valley in the early afternoon.
Our Plan to Visit Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument
Hunting for fossils and taking in the beautiful landscape are the primary things to do at Tule Springs Fossil Beds. This is a newer park unit, and does not have a Visitor Center yet. We plan to take a route along I-95 to Death Valley that will allow us to make a stop off on the side of the road to at least “step foot” into this park. (Afterall, we will be getting the passport stamp at Lake Mead, but it doesn’t mean anything unless we actually go there, right?) This will be the last quick stop before arriving at Death Valley’s Furnace Creek Visitor Center, and it’s a nice way to break up our drive to Death Valley as it is located approximately 1 hour from Lake Mead and about 2 hours to Death Valley.
Our Plan to Visit Death Valley National Park
I’m really looking forward to seeing Death Valley. This trip is exposing me to a lot of “firsts”, and this will be my first trip into a desert! Baking in a little time for stops and other delays, we should arrive at Death Valley’s Furnace Creek Visitor Center around 1pm.
We consulted the National Park Service for suggested places to see at Death Valley National Park. They outline suggestions based on the amount of time that you will spend in the park.
We will try to do all of the stops in the 1-3 hour bucket as well as some (if not all) of the Few extra hours section. Based on the park map I think that a reasonable route would be to start at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center to get our Passport stamps and to learn more about the park.
From there, we would drive due south to Badwater Basin which is a landscape of salt flats that are “the lowest point in North America, at 282 ft (86 m) below sea level” and Artists Drive which is a “scenic loop drive through multi-hued hills”. (I estimate that we will spend ~2 hours)
Due north of Furnace Creek, I absolutely want to see the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes which are smooth dules that rise about 100 feet and are about 30 minutes from Furnace Creek. (I estimate that we will spend ~1.5 hours)
Time-permitting, we will also stop at Keane Wonder Mine which is an historic gold mine with an intact aerial tramway also located to the north of the Visitor Center. I will need to inquire with the Park Ranget though because it does appear that portions of the road to this site are unpaved.
I would imagine that our last stop will be to Zabriskie Point, a badlands area, which is about 15 minutes (south again, but via a different road than Badwater Basin) from the Visitor Center. If we are feeling adventurous, we will tack on an additional 45 minutes (one way) to Dantes View which is described as a “breathtaking viewpoint over 5,000 ft above Death Valley”. (Depending on what we do here, we will add 30 minutes to 2 hours onto our journey).
Additional Resources
Check out this beautiful article for some views of Death Valley.
Travel Guide for Death Valley National Park (affiliate link)
Conclusion
This will be the last big day of our road trip before spending a couple days in Vegas! This trip will be filled with quick stops and adventure, and I cannot wait to share all of the experiences and tips that we bring back so that you can plan your own Vegas road trip adventure!
Check out the other updates in this planning series and join our email list to follow us on our journey!
Great Basin National Park: Part 1
Cedar Breaks and Bryce Canyon: Part 2
