Death Valley National Park Travel Forum

Hi, We have a week's holiday booked in Vegas from 7th November and plan to hire a car to see Death Valley and as many points of interest as possible. We had hoped to see the Sequoia National Park as well, but on reading previous correspondence in the forum we realize this is totally impractical and could be impossible anyway with the weather at this time of year. We thought Ridgecrest might be a good location for our overnight stay, travelling back through Barstow and visiting Calico en route. Has got anyone got any 'really must see' ideas for us as the trip is a totally open book at the moment. All suggestions gratefully received!

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Well, you may spend 1 hour in Calico and you can be on your way. There isn't much to see. As for Death Valley, hmmmm.... I have friends that go there. They like to camp and ride sand toys (dune buggies, alterain vehicles, dirt bikes, etc.). I guess it's impressive to see but I would have no desires to spend any time there. I think I would much rather see the Grand Canyon if traveling from Vegas. Even Hoover Dam is quite something to see. I would opt to see Sequoia National Park, too! Hope that helps!

Ridgecrest and Barstow are not very nice towns. If it were me I would spend the night in Death Valley at the Furnace Creek Ranch (or Inn if you like luxury).

Often the passes over the Sierras are not snowed in until December. I would be surprised if they weren't open in early November (but no one can predict the weather).

In DV make sure to see Scotty's Castle and the Crater. You probably could do Sequoia NP by going over Hwy 58 as that pass hardly ever gets snow and almost never gets enough to close. However, the drive would be very long and most of it not very interesting.

If it were me I would go into DV and then come out on the west and spend the night in Lone Pine. Furnace Creek would be nice, but it might be very expensive this time of year. You should find Lone Pine a little cheaper.

You could also go into DV and then come back out on the east and go up Hwy 95 toward Tonapah, then east on Hwy 6 and back Hwy 375 to Hwy 93 back to Hwy 15 to LV.

This will take you in a big loop around Nellis Air Force Base and through the little town of Rachel, Nevada. This is an area known to be home of the infamous Area 51 and the secret government project to study and hide alien space ships. Depending on how much you stop you could stay in either Beatty or Tonapah.

Thanks everyone for your help. We will now have many a happy evening pouring over our map and studying any literature we can find! We're on a pretty tight budget and with such a long flight for a limited time we obviously want to make the most of every second!