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The next morning, we were off to do one of my favorite trails in Death Valley: Titus Canyon. You'll need to head out on Daylight Pass Road and you'll be driving for awhile. The road will straighten out and you'll think you've gone past the trail head but keep going. The trail will be on your left and it's a sharp turn as you're heading out of the park. You'll spend the first few miles bumping along a gravel road. This year the road was much more rutted up than last year, but still doable in most high clearance vehicles. I have seen mini-vans do this trail two years in a row now, and I assume those vans were rental cars. -- Do you know the difference between a rental car and a 4WD truck? A rental car can go anywhere! -- Titus Canyon is difficult to capture in a picture. The landscape varies from open desert as you enter, to epic landscapes, to towering canyons. Along the way you'll see wildlife, a ghost town from the Gold Rush Era, and even some petroglyphs formed thousands of years ago on the rocks by the native people. You'll spend a few hours here at least, so plan accordingly. We were cutting it a little close on gas, so do yourself a favor and fill up before you enter the trail.
Side note: Avoid filling up in Panamint Springs or Furnace Creek. You'll pay about 40% more at the pumps here. Instead, head into Stovepipe Wells and fill up. Heading back to Cali? This was the cheapest we found gas until we got back into Nevada.
One thing you'll find out when you visit Death Valley is that's it's a lot like any major city. In Reno, when someone asks you how far away something is, you tell them it's 20 minutes. In Death Valley, everything is an hour away. Fortunately, Death Valley is set up to handle that massive sigh you just let out when thinking about having to drive an hour to each attraction. If you read the post from Day 1 of our Death Valley trip, you know that we piled up the activities. Whether you're a big planner or completely spontaneous, you can find ways to break up the driving with little mini-attractions scattered across the massive valleys.
Our strategy for Day 2 was to hit big attractions. After Titus Canyon, we went to check out the Mesquite Sand Dunes. We could have planned better, but we ended up hitting the dunes at 1:00 PM. Right on the sign at the entrance they tell you to avoid the hottest times of the day, but we decided to venture out into the sand despite the 95 Degree temperatures. The dunes are cool and you definitely get that Star Wars vibe. -- If you didn't know, several scenes of the original movies were filmed here! -- If I was going to do it over again, I'd definitely try to hit this in the morning before the heat of the day has a chance to turn your hike into a sauna. I don't think it would matter if you were here at sunrise or sunset as the photo opportunities are best suited north to south.
After the dunes, it was off to Ubehebe Crater (pronounced "You-bee-hee-bee"). Never heard of it? Me neither. My goal was to continue exploring new places in Death Valley, so a place I'd never heard of was a perfect fit for our agenda. We headed out on a, you guessed it, one hour car ride to the crater. It's a long drive, but it's really not bad. The landscape provides a major distraction from the time spent driving. You'll pass by the road to Scotty's Castle, but it's currently closed as of April 2019 due to major flood damage. Follow your way up the hill and you'll find a small parking lot, but watch out, there's no bathroom here! The crater is massive and truly impressive. If you want to take it all in, there are two main ways to do this. 1 - Walk the perimeter of this ancient volcano for a complete 360 degree view. 2 - If you're crazy, head on down into the bottom of the crater. We saw one person heading towards the bottom of the crater and no one is sure to this day if they ever made it out! Just kidding. But seriously, it's a long ways down if you decide to go.
During the whole trip, I think our biggest mistake was getting out to Ubehebe Crater too late in the day. What I didn't realize is that the road to Ubehebe is the way to get out to the Racetrack Playa. I went to Death Valley both times with the intention of going to the Racetrack, but ran out of time both trips! From the center of the park it will take you about 3 hours, maybe 4, to get to the Racetrack so plan ahead. If we had gone to see the moving rocks, we would not have arrived back at camp until well after dark and we were already exhausted from the non-stop action of our trip so far. We decided, instead, to head back to camp to relax again by the fire with a few snacks and a couple of drinks. I fell asleep dreaming of my next trip to Death Valley and next time I'm DEFINITELY going to the Racetrack to see the moving rocks.
Day 3 was all about packing up and getting back to Reno. We both had to be back to work the following day and we were a little anxious to get unpacked and get ready for the week ahead. We went back out of the valley through Panamint Springs and headed right back to Father Crowley. We arrived at 9:00 AM and waited for the jets for a half hour, but unfortunately, they never came. But as we passed the park exit, I heard a low roar in the distance. We stopped the Jeep and watched as three F-18's flew over us slowly. Thinking we had just missed the show in the valley, we started to drive. A couple of minutes later I could hear the roar of the jets again, but this time it was louder. We quickly stopped the Jeep and got it into park just as the first jet whipped past. I was able to snap a couple of photos and grab a video as they other two jets ripped by us. Those guys looked like they were having fun! Check out our Instagram Page for some wild video as they fly by.
The drive back to Reno went quickly as it always does when you have good company to share the drive with. I'll be looking forward to heading back to Death Valley again to continue exploring this massive, beautiful park. If you have ideas for other places to visit, please comment down below. Thanks for following along on the adventure and be sure to check us out on Instagram and YouTube!