35 Tips to Know Before You Go to Death Valley National Park
Death Valley can be a brutal place, but it’s a national park for a reason! The unique landscape and storied history make it a fascinating place that any fans of nature, geology, and/or history should visit at least once. Before we get started on all the tips you need to know before you go plus stuff we wish we would have known before we went (but no one talks about), here are a few quick facts about Death Valley National Park just to give you a general idea of what to expect:
Death Valley is home to the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth. That temperature was 134.1°F (56.7°C) and it was recorded in 1913.
In July 2024, Death Valley reported the highest monthly average temperature ever recorded, which was 108.5°F (that’s 42.5°C and yes that average includes nighttime “low” temperatures). They spent 9 consecutive days with a high temperature of over 125°F (51.7°C).
Visiting in the winter months is more popular because the temperatures are significantly lower, but that also means more crowds, less parking at the attractions, higher prices, and having a more difficult time getting a reservation to stay somewhere in the park.
Death Valley is also one of the driest places on the planet, receiving an average of less than 2 inches (5cm) of rain per year.
The evaporation rate in Death Valley is 150 inches (381cm) per year, so it completely decimates any and all rain water.
However, when it rains in Death Valley, even a small amount can cause flash floods because the ground is so tough that most of it can’t absorb any water.
Death Valley is the largest U.S. national park outside of Alaska, including 5,270 square miles (3.4 million acres).
There are two “towns” inside the national park with campgrounds, hotels, general stores, saloons, and gas stations. The larger hub is Furnace Creek and the smaller one is Stovepipe Wells.
Indigenous people still live in Death Valley and many of the attractions in the park are sacred to them, so you need to be respectful.
Now that you have some basic knowledge of Death Valley National Park, here’s our list of 35 tips to know before you go so you can stay safe and relatively cool, and save a little money…
1. Double Your Drinking Water
Between the heat and the dryness, dehydration is a very real problem in Death Valley. Recommended daily water intake in a normal setting is a half gallon per person, per day, so you should plan on drinking at least 1 gallon of water every day to make up for all the extra water you’re going to be sweating out, whether you can feel it or not. (Chances are you won’t feel it because it’s evaporating off of you so quickly!)
Even if you visit Death Valley National Park in the cool winter months, it will likely still be just as dry, which means that the air is sucking all the moisture out of your body even when it’s not hot. So no matter when you go to Death Valley, you should drink double the water you’re used to.
2. Bring Drinks with Electrolytes
Drinking sports drinks with electrolytes will help your body maintain proper hydration levels (among other things, but I’m not a doctor) while you’re exploring the hottest place on Earth.
I (Phoebe) personally dealt with severe dehydration twice when I was a teenager, and what I learned from those experiences is that the first thing a medic does to try to help you rehydrate is give you a drink that’s half water, half sports drink with electrolytes. So while you’re in Death Valley, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to drink half a bottle of water, then refill that half with a sports drink that has electrolytes, drink the whole thing, and repeat. Of course, you have to also watch your sugar intake with sports drinks, but that’s the general idea.
3. Use a Hydration Backpack
Okay, so it doesn’t have to be a hydration backpack necessarily, but you should at least take a water bottle that’s easy to carry while you’re walking. Even if you’re not doing a strenuous activity like hiking, you should have water within a second’s reach at all times to make sure you’re drinking enough of it. You’ll want to look for a bottle or pack that has decent insulation too, so your water can stay relatively cold.
4. Furnace Creek Campground Has Clean Drinking Water
If you’re staying at Furnace Creek Campground, then you can bring a few large jugs of water and refill them from the campground’s dishwashing stations instead of packing in all the drinking water you’re going to need. Packing that much water can take up a lot of space and add a lot of weight to your car, so this is a good alternative option that no one told us before we went.
If you’re picky about your drinking water, then we suggest bringing all of it that you’re going to need. The general stores in Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells have bottled water you can buy, but that’s going to get really expensive, really fast if you’re relying on it.
5. Keep Extra Water in Your Car
Since you’re going to need to drink so much extra water, and you’ll be driving around a lot to see all the attractions, you should plan on keeping a few gallons of water in your car to refill from throughout the day. This is the first thing that all the rangers will tell you in Death Valley. Always pack more than you think you’ll need!
6. Drive an SUV
We saw all kinds of vehicles in Death Valley, from motorcycles and sedans to camper vans and RVs, but we ended up being really glad that we rented a hybrid SUV with 4-wheel drive because it meant that we could go most places in the park. Some of the popular attractions are only accessible via rough dirt/gravel roads, so driving something with a higher clearance than a sedan was preferable, but some other attractions had steep grades and tight turns that would be impossible (or at least very dangerous) in something like a camper van. Then there are some roads that require experienced 4x4 drivers to get to some of the lesser-visited attractions.
The hybrid aspect of our rented SUV came in handy too with all the driving we did throughout this enormous park, because we all know that gas is expensive these days, and it will cost you even more inside the national park.
Bonus Tip: If you need to rent a vehicle for your trip, check out Turo for some affordable options. It’s like Airbnb, but for cars. We’ve used their services for years.
7. Enter the Park with a Full Tank of Gas
Even just seeing the major attractions in Death Valley over 3-4 days, we drove 400+ miles within the park’s boundaries alone. While there are two gas stations inside the park where you can fill up, fuel inside the park is significantly more expensive than it is just outside the park.
For example: we visited Red Rock Canyon State Park on our drive up from Los Angeles, so we took the less popular entry route to Death Valley from the west of Panamint Springs, but first we filled up on gas in Lone Pine, CA for $5.55/gal. Gas at Stovepipe Wells (where we ended up getting a few gallons on our last day to get us out of the park) was $5.89, but at Furnace Creek, that same gallon of gas would have run us $7.03. 🤯
There are vast stretches of roads in Death Valley that don’t have any services, sometimes for 70 miles at a time, so keeping an eye on your gas gauge is also important.
8. Check Your Brakes to Avoid a Fire
Vehicle fires happen a few times a year in Death Valley because of brakes overheating while going down steep grades, which are pretty unavoidable in this national park. Death Valley is made up of lots of mountain ridges and the valley between them, so you’re constantly going up and down in elevation as you’re driving around.
Obviously, overheated brakes are more likely to happen in the extreme heat of the summertime, and it happens most often to semis bringing supplies into the park, but it HAS happened to visitors hauling camper trailers and individual cars, too. If you smell something burning while you’re driving in Death Valley, pull over and get out of your car immediately. You can help prevent it by making sure your brake pads aren’t worn down before your trip.
9. Have a Spare Tire
The roads can be rough in Death Valley sometimes, and with how large the park is, you’re not anywhere near a mechanic shop. The last thing you want is to be stranded in the desert with a flat tire and no replacement. This is especially important if you’re planning on exploring some of the less-visited attractions in the park.
10. Stay With Your Car if it Breaks Down
It may seem counter-intuitive, but you have a better chance of being found if you’re with your vehicle than if you’re walking. Your car also provides shade and should have all your back-up drinking water, keeping you much safer than if you wander out into the desert in search of help.
Bonus Tip: Most vehicle breakdowns in Death Valley are from overheating and driving off-road. To help keep your car from overheating in the extreme heat, you can opt to turn off your AC and roll down the windows instead. It may not be pleasant, but it beats getting stuck somewhere because your car overheated. And off-roading isn’t even allowed in Death Valley, so just don’t do it!
11. Don’t Rely on Google Maps
While you’re planning your trip, especially in the final days leading up to it, make a little time to click around on Google Maps to familiarize yourself with the roads and where the attractions are, because once you’re in Death Valley National Park, you can kiss your cell signal goodbye.
Sure, you can download offline maps onto your phone, but we did that and even those wouldn’t always load for us in the park. At the very least, you need to know how to get to either Furnace Creek or Stovepipe Wells from where you’ll be entering the park. The 190 is the main road, so it’s simple to follow as long as you have a general idea of where you need to go.
12. Check the NPS Website for Road Closures
Speaking of not relying on Google Maps, you NEED to check this page on the National Park Service website for road closures in Death Valley leading up to your trip. At the time we’re writing this, the road to Scotty’s Castle in the northern area of the park has been closed for months, but Google Maps will still tell you to drive on it, so you really canNOT rely on Google to give you the most up-to-date information about road closures in Death Valley.
If you’re unsure about road conditions getting to an attraction you want to see (or maybe in the specific vehicle you’re in), you can speak to a ranger at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center about it once you’re inside the park.
13. Don’t Forget to Pay Your Entry Fee
Most national parks have gates where you have to pay your entry fee in order to get into the park in the first place, but Death Valley doesn’t. Instead, they’ve stationed kiosks throughout the park at some of the most popular attractions where you should pay. Check out this page on the National Park Service website for the current prices and a list of the kiosk locations under “In-Person Payment” near the bottom of the page. Make sure you keep your receipt!
Please just pay the entry fee. The money goes directly towards keeping the park open, so it’s a good cause. 🙂
14. Get a Free Paper Map at the Visitor Center
Once you’ve paid your entry fee, head inside the Furnace Creek Visitor Center to show your receipt to one of the rangers and they’ll give you a free paper map of the park. There is zero cell signal in Death Valley outside of the main hubs (see Tip #11), so that paper map is key.
15. Go to the Visitor Center First
Not only should you go to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center first so you can get that free paper map, but you’ll also be able to learn a lot about the park before you go out exploring. You will have a much greater appreciation for everything you see in the park if you know a little about the history of how the landscape formed and about the miners who worked there in the 1800s.
There’s also a surprising amount of wildlife in Death Valley that you’ll be able to learn about at the Visitor Center, which is important to know so you can stay safe. However, not all the wildlife in the park is talked about in the Visitor Center which is why we recommend our next point.
16. Learn About the Wildlife Before You Visit
Yes, there is wildlife in Death Valley, and yes, some of it can be dangerous. Before your trip, we recommend looking through the wildlife information on the NPS website so you’ll know what to look out for while you’re exploring the park.
It isn’t all scary though! We were woken up each morning by birds at our campsite - mostly mourning doves and great-tailed grackles - and we saw many lizards of varying sizes. On our last day, we spotted a snake at our campsite, and knowing that sidewinder rattlesnakes call Death Valley home, we were immediately on our guard until we realized there was no rattle. It turned out to be a great basin gopher snake, a non-venomous, non-threat to humans.
The only other wildlife “scare” we had in Death Valley was seeing the shadowy figure of a coyote sprint across the campground as we sat by our fire at night after everyone around us had gone to bed. It startled us, but the coyote obviously didn’t want trouble. It’s just important to know that they’re around so you don’t leave food out within their potential grasp.
17. Check Inside Your Shoes Before Putting Them On
One last thing about wildlife that you probably won’t know if you’re not from a similar climate: there are critters in the desert that like to burrow, and the inside of your sneakers looks just like a burrow. Even if you’re staying indoors at one of the hotels in Death Valley, you should check inside your shoes before putting them on, EVERY time, just in case.
Adam and I have never personally found any critters in our shoes, but it does happen, and it’s better to be safe than sorry.
18. Pre-Plan Your Activities
In such a large national park like Death Valley, planning out what activities you’ll do in what order is important to you can maximize your time there. If you’re spending more time in the park than just a day trip, we recommend figuring out what you want to do in the areas south of Furnace Creek for one day, such as Badwater Basin, Artist’s Palette, and Zabriskie Point, then head to the area around Stovepipe Wells and to the west of that another day to check out the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, Mosaic Canyon, etc. If you’re heading further north to some of the attractions up there like the Ubehebe Crater or Scotty’s Castle, plan on spending most if not all of your day in that area because it can be quite a ways to drive.
We’re working on another blog article of what we recommend for your schedule in Death Valley, so you can sign up for our newsletter if you’d like to be notified when that’s released.
19. Wake Up Early and Avoid the Afternoon Heat
As you’re planning your activities, it’s important to keep the afternoon heat in mind. During the hotter months between April - October, you need to be FINISHED with any strenuous activities like hiking by 10am.
If you’re already an early bird, then Death Valley is going to be perfect for you, but if you’re not (like me), then you should plan on waking up earlier than usual so you can get out and enjoy the park before the heat sets in. In the afternoon heat, it’s hard to do much of anything. Some ideas for stuff to do during those high temperatures is have lunch and play billiards at the saloon in Stovepipe Wells, grab ice cream in the old school ice cream parlor in Furnace Creek, or take advantage of the pool if you’re staying at The Ranch or The Inn.
20. Plan Fast Breakfast Foods
To make the most out of those morning hours before the heat sets in, you’ll need to have some quick, easy breakfast options like protein bars and fruit. We usually enjoy making scrambles and that sort of thing when we go camping, but you’ll lose so much precious time in the morning that you could otherwise use for exploring, so save any meals that require cooking time for later in the day.
21. Take Extra Sunscreen and a Hat
Don’t come at us with excuses about how you don’t get sunburned so you don’t need to wear sunscreen. Skin cancer is real and so are the intense UV rays in Death Valley. This is simple advice that you should not overlook! Find some sunscreen that’s easy to reapply because you’re going to need a lot of it.
22. Buy a Specialized Cooling Towel
Not just any towel soaked in water will do for a cooling towel to wear around your neck in Death Valley. Remember that crazy evaporation rate? It will dry out a normal towel within minutes. The cooling towels that we use are from a brand called Frogg Toggs and they are absolutely worth the $15 on Amazon. They’re made of a special material that holds water for way longer than a normal towel but feels dry to the touch. It sounds weird, but it works!
23. Learn the Signs of Heat Stroke
This is among the MOST IMPORTANT tips we have for Death Valley because it could literally end up saving your life or help you save someone else’s. Bloggers don’t really like to talk about this because it’s a very serious matter, but we believe that the more you know, the safer you’ll be, so here goes…
A few people die every year in Death Valley because of heat stroke, and several more have to be removed from the park for medical treatment due to dehydration. The leading cause of death among visitors in Death Valley is single-car accidents, most of which happen because someone passes out at the wheel from heat stroke. The good news is that this is absolutely preventable, but only if you learn to recognize the warning signs.
Check out this guide to heat-related illnesses from the CDC to learn the symptoms to watch out for and what to do if you or someone around you has them.
24. Have a First Aid Kit in Your Car
Even if you’re staying in one of the hotels, we recommend keeping a first aid kit in your car so you’ll be prepared for some small cuts (at the very least) while you’re out exploring the park. A plastic container we had in the car randomly cut my finger pretty badly, which I then needed to sanitize and bandage up, and we saw a man coming back down Mosaic Canyon with a bloody elbow. When we asked if he was okay, he said he slipped and fell in the canyon, which led Adam and I to not risk it when we came upon a slippery section that we couldn’t go around. I couldn’t risk slipping and falling while I’m still recovering from a back injury, anyway. So if you plan to hike through some canyons (which is really cool!), you might even want to take a small first aid kit in a backpack with you.
We use this first aid kit, which is small and can fit in your glovebox, but we have added a few things to it and swapped some stuff out. If you’d like for us to do a blog article or video about it, send us an email or leave a comment on this YouTube video.
25. Keep Hand Sanitizer with You
Many of the major attractions in Death Valley have restrooms in their parking lots, but they’re really just vault toilets, meaning they don’t have running water. If you don’t have hand sanitizer in your car, you’ll probably end up wishing you did at some point during your trip to Death Valley.
Bonus Tip: Even though the Furnace Creek Campground has running water where you can wash your hands, there’s no soap provided, so you might also want to consider bringing hand soap unless you’re fine with using hand sanitizer 90% of the time. The only public access bathrooms with running water and hand soap in Death Valley are at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center and the saloons.
26. Pack Lotion and Chapstick
The dryness of Death Valley will sneak up on you and affect you way more than you’re expecting! The majority of the time, it feels like the air is sucking all the moisture from your body like it’s a dementor after your soul. To help your body retain more moisture and give all that water you’re drinking less work to do, you can apply lotion 2-3 times per day.
You’ll likely also need chapstick multiple times a day, but beware of storing it somewhere where it will melt in the heat between uses.
27. Pack Extra Socks
While we’re on the subject of packing, one thing that we felt silly about not anticipating needing was extra socks. You likely won’t feel yourself sweating except for inside your sneakers, and we found ourselves wishing that we had a fresh pair of socks on more than one occasion during our time in Death Valley.
28. Hiking Poles Will Help
Another thing that will come in handy if you’re planning on hiking is hiking poles. Not all of the hiking trails need them, but the slippery slopes of Mosaic Canyon and the soft sand of the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes will be significantly easier to traverse with hiking poles. If we had them, we probably wouldn’t have had to turn around in Mosaic Canyon when we did.
29. Keep Window Cleaner in Your Car
This is a bit of a weird one, but all the dust and bugs that landed on our windshield made it a lot harder to take pictures and videos while we were driving around. The landscape is incredible and you can’t pull over to take pictures every time you see an amazing view (you’d be stopping every 5 minutes), so you’ll likely be aiming your camera through your windows on the go. Simply having some window cleaner and paper towels would have made it a lot easier for us.
30. Bring Bug Spray
We had some HUGE horse flies at our campsite during the day, but otherwise all the bugs waited until sunset to come out. If you plan to do some stargazing or just sit around a campfire in the evening, bug spray will definitely be your friend. We also got a new bug zapper for our campsite right before this trip and it worked magic for us (despite being a little gross to clean out the next morning because of all the dead bugs).
31. Plan Your Trip on a New Moon
Stargazing can be spectacular in Death Valley, but only if you time your trip right. Death Valley is a Certified International Dark Sky Park, which means that there is practically zero light pollution there. If you’re staying in one of the hotels, you may need to get away from those resort lights by going to Badwater Basin or the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes to stargaze, but if you’re tent camping like we did, try to pick a campsite as far away from the RVs as possible. We camped at site 116 at the Furnace Creek Campground and it would have worked perfectly if we had just known this tip ahead of time…
During our trip, the moon was directly above us in the sky and only half-full, but it lit up the landscape like it was a street lamp. It was CRAZY how bright it was. We didn’t even need flashlights to walk down to the bathroom. It was cool, but the “light pollution” from the moon also meant that we could only see a handful of the brightest stars in the sky.
So when you’re picking dates for your trip, check out this website to pick dates when there will be a new moon. There are also apps that can help you know how high the moon will be in the night sky (because if it’s low enough, it might not matter so much how full it is), but we haven’t used one we love yet so please let us know if you have recommendations!
32. Download a Stargazing App
If you’re going through the trouble of planning your trip when there will be a new moon, then you should definitely download a stargazing app to help you identify the stars you’re going to be looking at. It just makes the whole experience more interesting and educational! (It’s a great way to get kids interested, too.)
The app we use is called Skyguide, and it works even without a cell signal, which is crucial in Death Valley. We had a weak cell signal at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, but everywhere else in the park is an absolute dead zone for cell service. Skyguide is available for both iPhone and Android.
33. Get a California Campfire Permit
Anyone planning to have a campfire in Death Valley needs to get a California Campfire Permit. It’s FREE and only takes a few minutes to watch a video, answer a few questions, and then print out your certificate. You’ll learn about how to properly put out your fire to help prevent wildfires, which are a very, very real problem in California. If you have a fire going but don’t have a California Campfire Permit, the rangers are allowed to kick you out of the park. It’s simple, easy, and FREE, so just take a couple minutes to get one!
34. Take an Ax to Split Firewood
If you enjoy a campfire for cooking or just for ambiance, then of course the first thing you need (after your campfire permit) is firewood. You should not move firewood far from where you bought it because of tree-killing insects and diseases that could be in the wood that you can’t see, and since Death Valley is so big, you’ll need to get your firewood inside the park. However, gathering firewood OR kindling is illegal in Death Valley, so buying it from the general stores in Furnace Creek or Stovepipe Wells is your only option, and for whatever reason, they don’t sell any kindling.
Luckily, my brother-in-law got us a wonderful ax specifically for this purpose, and Adam absolutely loved using it to break up the logs into smaller pieces that would burn more easily. Getting a fire started would have been a lot more difficult if we hadn’t had that ax.
35. Everything is Cheaper in Stovepipe Wells
Last but not least, let’s save some money! If you need food, ice, firewood, or gas, grab it in Stovepipe Wells instead of Furnace Creek. Furnace Creek was obviously more convenient for us to get supplies from since we were staying at the Furnace Creek Campground, but we spent $14 per firewood bundle in Furnace Creek for our first night and $11 per bundle in Stovepipe Wells afterwards. Drinks at the saloon in Stovepipe Wells cost about $1 less on average than at the Furnace Creek saloon. And don’t forget about the crazy difference in gas prices. 🤯
I know this is a LOT of information, so don’t forget to bookmark this page in your browser so you can easily find it again. Sure, Death Valley can feel scary and overwhelming, but it’s a surprisingly beautiful place that is absolutely worth visiting! Death Valley National Park shows off the baffling diversity of terrain in California and this country as a whole, especially for those national park enthusiasts who might be doing a road trip to visit several parks at a time.
For more information about Death Valley, check out our Death Valley playlist over on YouTube, and please feel free to send us any questions you have or tips you would add to this list via email or in a comment on our YouTube videos! Happy travels - we hope to see you In The Great Wide somewhere!
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