Panamint Dunes, Death Valley National Park, California

When to Go

It’s no surprise that Death Valley is a very-very hot place. To experience blood-boiling heat like we did, you’ll want to visit May through August. When we visited in late May (high of 113°F) we spent afternoons lounging about in the air-conditioned movie room at the Furnace Creek Visitor’s Center. A lot of businesses also have great porches where you can sit in rocking chairs and dream about bathing in ice-cold lemon-lime Gatorade.

For a more mild experience, winter and spring are great times to visit the park. In February, the flowers of Death Valley (yes, there are flowers here) all bloom in one big display called the Super Bloom. For information about the Super Bloom, click here.

Trip Cost

Before You Go

You don’t need a back country permit for overnight trips in Death Valley, so there’s no paperwork before you go on this trip. Backpacking here is nowhere near as popular as in other parks (could it be the crushing heat??) which means that you’ll most likely have the place to yourself.

Even though you don’t need a permit, it’s a good idea to stop by a ranger station, to check current conditions and trail closures.

Dune shot with tiny little shadows.

We had so much fun running and rolling down the dunes.

Getting There

Because Death Valley is so hot (have I mentioned that yet?), the hiking schedule for this trip is very unusual. To avoid being out on the dunes in the incinerating mid-day heat, it’s best to start this trip as the sun is setting. We ended up getting to the trailhead and starting our hike around 6 PM.

The Panamint Dunes trailhead is located in the far west side of the park off of Highway 190. There is a small dirt road on the north side of the highway near the town of Panamint Springs that will take you to the trailhead. The dirt road is 5 miles of car torture that is definitely more suited for a high clearance vehicle. For reference, our Subaru Crosstrek made it, but it was quite an uncomfortable ride.

There’s a small convenience store in Panamint Springs where you can buy water (you’ll need to carry water in because there’s no safe drinking water on the trail) and snacks.

The weather was so warm and still that we didn’t even need our rain cover.

A beautiful desert sunset.

On the Trail

The trail starts out on grainy desert sand and fades in and out as you get closer to the dunes. We found it easier to make our own route and walk straight at the dunes. The biggest obstacles on this hike are 1-foot deep dried-out stream beds left by rainstorms.

After about 3 miles, the ground will get much softer as the grainy desert sand mixes with the softer dune sand. You can camp anywhere in the area, including on the dunes; however, it gets really hard to walk once you get farther in. We camped at the foot of the first big dune because it was getting late and we were getting hungry. In the morning, we were able to play on the dunes a lot more. The early morning is one of the best times to photograph the dunes because the low suns casts all kinds of cool shadows on the dunes.

After the Hike

There’s not a lot to eat on this side of the park; however, there is a convenience store in Panamint Springs to pick up some snacks and that (lemon-lime) Gatorade. We waited until we got to Bakersfield to stop for lunch and I can’t remember anything about that lunch.