Death Valley / Badwater Road

Day 2 in Death Valley National Park | Badwater Basin | Natural Bridge Trail | Devil’s Golf Course | Artists Palette | December 2024

For our second day in Death Valley, we planned to visit as many of the highlights along Badwater Road as we could. As soon as we were awake, we immediately drove down to Badwater Basin, where we planned to start and then work our way back up North.

Most of our plans included places where Charlotte could be outside with us, but this was the one exception. Since it was still early and cool outside, and Char was still pretty mellow after just waking up. So we left her in the van for a couple minutes so we could go stand at the lowest spot in the US together. We made lots of jokes about either how this wasn’t the lowest point that Curtis has been to, having lived on a submarine, and about how we were ending 2024 on a ‘low note’ since it was December 31. 2025 could only go up from here, right?! *crying* Then we also joked that this is where I would be leaving Curtis to hike Telescope Mountain, since that was on his list of peaks to hike and it was just right there! But he was opting for the easier route, so instead we just got our pictures here and then continued on with our day.

Our next stop was the Natural Bridge Trail. Since it was much quieter up here, I made breakfast and tea in the trailhead parking lot while Charlotte and Curtis wandered around on the road. Then Curtis and I each took turns walking to the bridge, which was just a third of a mile up the trail. There were other features along the trail, such as the ‘dry waterfall’, but we opted to skip that one for today. The trail to the bridge was mostly through a rocky wash, and the bridge towers over the trail. We also enjoyed the views that we got from the trailhead overlooking the salt flats.

Our next stop was to see more of the salt flats off of Devil’s Golf Course road. The dirt road was one of those that were on their list for dog friendly walks, but instead of walking the road Charlie decided it was more fun to sniff around the parking lot and solicit pets from other visitors. Curtis and I took turns wandering around the salt, then Curtis carried Char over to a spot so we could get the above family picture. We weren’t sure if dogs were allowed to wander off the gravel, and also didn’t know what Char would think of the salty ground, and decided it was probably better to not find out.

For our last stop on Badwater Road, we took the scenic route on Artists Drive, and took turns getting out at different points along the way. Artists Palette was probably my favorite spot in the whole park. I loved wandering up the colorful ridges and through the alluvial fans. I could’ve spent much more time here, but didn’t want to keep Curtis and Charlie waiting. If we come back, I definitely want more time to explore in this area (and to maybe get an earlier start since it was now late morning and getting crowded).

Having accomplished all we set out to do in the morning, we made our way over to the visitor center where we had lunch in the picnic area and used their WiFi (had to post my year in review and that was the only way it was going to happen!). After that, we returned to our campsite to relax and enjoy the sunshine and warmth. We talked about going somewhere for sunset, but ended up just taking it easy for the rest of the day. Our second night of camping in Sunset Campground was much quieter than the first, which surprised us since it was a holiday. I guess all the real New Year’s Eve partiers go to Vegas or something. We were thankful for a quiet night and a wonderful day to wrap up another year of adventures together!