As I’ve been working on planning little guy’s first camping trip, I’ve been remembering my adult self’s first camping trip in Dec 2012. I have fond memories of camping at Sunset Beach with my girl scout troop as a kid, but there was a pretty big gap thereafter in which the only time I spent in a tent ended in the receipt of Duke Basketball tickets. Of course, what better place to get your feet wet (figuratively) than Death Valley!? It takes about 8 hours to get to Death Valley from the Bay Area as you have to go down and around the Sierras, but the long drive even after leaving I-5 behind certainly makes you feel the remoteness. En route, we discovered the roadside town of Tehachapi, the “Land of Four Seasons” and your best (only?) bet to stop for food east of Bakersfield. The muted desert colors and expansive landscape were impressive from first approach into the valley.
We spent two nights camping at Furnace Creek Campground in the park. The campground was very nice, although since there are not really trees, there is not much privacy, which can be especially annoying when you’re surrounded by RVs in a little two-person tent (since then I always try to reserve tent-only or generator-free loops in campgrounds). Our first night went very well except that I had to pull a rogue camp chair out of the fire (and I was the one nervous about having a fire in the first place!). The second night the wind picked up even more, and I learned the lesson to always have a backup no-cook meal plan in case, for example, you can’t keep your camp stove lit long enough to boil water. We could hear the wind swirling around the valley all night long, and every so often, it would hit the tent and rattle it like it was a spaceship about to take off. Not the greatest night sleep, but kind of fun. For our third night, we stayed in the Panamint Springs Resort, a little off-the-grid motel with a decent beer selection near the edge of the park.
For hiking, we hit up a few trails, including hiking the Golden Canyon to Gower Gulch loop with the add on loop to visit Zabriskie Point. I didn’t actually realize you could drive all the way to the point by tour bus, but I like to think the view is nicer when you get there on your own two feet! This loop was a really great way to see some of the cool layered rock formations, and I learned what a gulch is! [a narrow V-shaped canyon containing a small stream or rock fall] For another hike, we explored Titus Canyon by hiking in from the valley side. It is popular to drive through the slot canyon from the Nevada side. Clearly not everyone headed the advice that a high clearance vehicle was recommended, but we didn’t want to risk it with my Ford Focus — plus it’s fun to hike!
Of course we visited some of Death Valley’s famous sights, including Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the United States at over 300 feet below sea level. The Badwater salt flats were a dramatic landscape, further highlighted by late-afternoon shadows. We also drove up to Scotty’s Castle, a fun piece of desert history and 20s architecture. If I recall, Death Valley Scotty conned rich New Yorkers, who basically went with it and established an elaborate desert retreat.
As usual, I’d love to spend more time in Death Valley National Park ~ maybe I’ll have to start planning for the next superbloom! I’m super curious to visit Racetrack Playa to see the “mysterious” moving rocks (yes, I know they confirmed the way the rocks move, but it doesn’t diminish the sense of intrigue regarding self-moving rocks).
In spite of a few slight mishaps, this was definitely a great re-introduction to camping for me. Here’s hoping for similar luck first time camping as a family with a toddler!
but guess which ones we could hear playing drinking games and being generally loud late into the night? It’s never a good sign when you pull into camp to hear your neighbors blasting Spice Girls and attempting to play the game Catchphrase but only “succeeding” by frantically spelling out the answers (i.e. cheating)… I guess avoiding this is why I need to give backpacking another try in the future. As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one type of campout at which flipcup is appropriate, and it’s one where you leave with Duke basketball tickets in hand!
Princess is in a great location just about a 10 min drive past Grant Grove on CA 180 and a half hour from Cedar Grove. It is technically in the National Forest, but you do have to pay the NP entrance fee to get to it by road. It was actually a great location for being able to explore both Sequoia and Kings Canyon parks (at least those areas accessible by road from the west). The campsites were generally more spread out that what I saw in Cedar and Grant Groves, and some had a decent amount of privacy among the trees. We were in the “Shining Cloud” loop at site #50, which was ideally situated between some trees and had a nice open area out the back leading toward Princess meadow. The sites on either side of us also seemed pretty nice, although they were nearer to the other loops on one side or the bathroom (pit toilets) on the other. At the campsite, we had company from chipmunks, Douglas’ squirrels, and a little bat in the evenings!
amenities of campgrounds in the park (I have to say, I am a fan of access to potable water). Some campsites were pretty large, but with nothing but a few Joshua trees for buffer, it did get a little noisy from some of the nearby campers. Not so noisy you couldn’t hear the coyotes crying in the early evening, though. There are some mid-range hiking trails in the area of the campground, but we didn’t check them out this trip. We did discover that Sam’s Market (and pizza and Indian food…) a few miles down the road in the town of Joshua Tree, had a good beer selection and other supplies, such as firewood.