Zach and I have started taking an anniversary trip after cross country season is over. So this year, right after the high school cross country season ended, we jetted off to the southwest for a week of outdoor fun.
Our decision of where to head for our little get-away was helped along when I found some really cheap flights to Las Vegas for the week. It was our first time flying with Allegiant, and we were pleasantly surprised by how easy and smooth everything was (and by having an empty middle seat on both our flights). Although our outbound flight was delayed by 2 hours (including one with us sitting on the tarmac), we blamed the government shutdown and not the airline. Otherwise, everything was smooth sailing. Or flying, as it were.
We got into Las Vegas in the early evening, got our rental car, enjoyed some In-and-Out Burger for dinner, and grabbed some groceries and snacks at Target before heading to Pahrump, NV to our Holiday Inn for the evening.
After a good night of sleep and a free hotel breakfast, we headed to our primary destination for the week...Death Valley National Park.
Our initial plan for the day was to start at Golden Canyon and do the Golden Canyon to Gower Gulch Hike. As we tried to head towards Golden Canyon, we learned that Badwater Road (one of the primary roads in the park with many of the things we wanted to do) was closed. With the road closure, that meant that Badwater Basin (the lowest point in the US), Devil's Golf Course, Natural Bridge, Artist's Drive and Artist's Palette, and Golden Canyon were inaccessible unless you had a bike and the training to pedal for 40+ miles. I did not have either.
We backtracked to Zabriskie Point and instead started our hike from there. We did a loop hike from Zabriskie Point to Golden Canyon via Gower Gulch, returning to Zabriskie Point via Golden Canyon with a quick off-shoot to Red Cathedral.
The day was warm (low 80's) and sunny...so nice for hiking. The hiking reminded us of the Badlands or Canyonlands...sand and rocks and some rock scrambling.
The extra hike to Red Cathedral was a little anti-climatic...the "cathedral" spires looked more red from a distance, and the hike itself just brought us to the base of the towering rocks. I had expected a more dramatic view or end point, but alas. We just turned around and hiked back out.
When it was all said and done, we hiked for about 6-7 miles and got a good feel for the other-worldly landscape that makes up Death Valley.
After our hike, we headed back towards the entrance. We had thought about driving through Twenty Mule Canyon, but that road was also closed. Apparently some flash flooding over the summer had impacted a number of the roads in the park, and the government shut-down had delayed some of the work/re-opening. Instead we headed to Dante's View. From here, you could look down onto Badwater Road (where we couldn't drive) and at least got a view of the salt flats of Badwater Basin far below.
We walked around Dante's View a bit, enjoyed the view, and then drove back past Zabriskie Point towards Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, as we hoped to watch the sunset from the sand dunes.
As we had plenty of time on our way to the sand dunes, we stopped at the Visitor's Center to get a better understanding of what we could/could not access. We also stopped at the Harmony Borax Works, a historic borax mining company that had been open in the 1800s. There was a short walking trail and education placards talking about the mining of borax in Death Valley.
At the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, we did a little walking around and exploring on the dunes. Zach has very little use for sand or dunes, but he did get the experience of standing on some salt flats, so there is that.
We did have fun in Death Valley finding places that were featured in the original Star Wars movies (as much of it was filmed in Death Valley), including this desert scene that was filmed right on the sand dunes that we were on.
We stuck around long enough to watch the sun set on the dunes before heading back to check in to our hotel for the night.
We stayed at the Ranch at Death Valley, which is a little oasis town within the National Park. It has cabins and hotel rooms, a few restaurants and stores, and activities like golf, horseback riding, swimming, and pickleball.
The grounds were very pretty and well-kept, but the hotel rooms were dated and mediocre at best. After looking at our dinner options (an expensive steakhouse, a buffet, an ice-cream parlor, and a pub), we opted for the pub. That might have been a mistake as the menu was limited and the food was about on par with the hotel room...mediocre, but priced as if it wasn't.
Our plan for day 2 had originally been to rent a jeep and explore the Ubehebe Crater and then go off-roading to check out the Racetrack Playa with the mysterious sailing rocks. Unfortunately, the road to get to both of these areas was closed as well. So we shortened our less-than-impressive hotel stay from 2 nights to 1 (thanks to a helpful front desk guy that morning who was way more accommodating than the unhelpful front desk lady the night before). After enjoying breakfast in bed that my husband whipped up (cold bagels with peanut butter and a banana), we packed up and headed to our last Death Valley hike of the trip.
Our last stop in Death Valley was the 4 mile out and back Mosaic Canyon Trail.
There were some slot canyons and rock scrambling to keep things interesting on this trail. (We were pleased that the huge tour group of high school aged kids that showed up right as we did took way longer to hit the trail than we did and seemed to be moving much slower.)
Although Zach's GPS watch wasn't convinced that the trail ended here, we were.
It was a fun little trail to round out our time in Death Valley.
And it was a hiking first for us. Instead of signs or markings or cairns to follow, there were just these rock arrows to help with trail navigation.
As we were driving back out of the park, Zach enjoyed the fact that his watch was pointing out that we were -253 feet below sea level.
Since we had seen and done everything we wanted to do (that we were able to access) in Death Valley, we headed back towards Vegas with a quick stop for lunch at Tina's Tamales in Pahrump. It was tiny and tucked away in a little strip mall, but it was scrumptious...probably our best meal of the trip. And we got to meet Tina.
We then headed to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area right outside of Las Vegas. It was beautiful!
We had just enough time to hike the 2.5 mile round trip out and back Calico Tanks trail before it started getting dark.
It was a fun trail with some rock scrambling and beautiful red rock formations.
It ended with a bird's eye view of Las Vegas down below.
After our hike, we headed back to Vegas to find a place to stay for the night. We ended up in a Holiday Inn just a few blocks off the strip. This was the view from our room.
We got cleaned up and then walked down to the strip for dinner. We ended up eating at the Crack Shack, a fast-foodish chicken sandwich place that was surprisingly good. Tina's Tamales probably had it beat, but it was a close second.
After dinner, we walked around for a bit on the strip, watched the Bellagio fountains, got tired of all the people and the spectacle, and headed back for an early bedtime.
With an extra day and no desire to spend it in Las Vegas, we slept in, enjoyed our free hotel breakfast, and then headed northeast of the city to Valley of Fire State Park for the day.
We spent the day hiking and exploring. We started with the 3-3.5 mile Fire Wave and Seven Wonders Loop trail. Although it was a bit difficult to navigate and we weren't sure if we actually followed the official loop trail or not, we still enjoyed it.
The 'Fire Wave' was one of the cooler rock formations we saw on the hike. I'm sure influencers take much more Instagram worthy pictures of it than I got, but I still thought it was cool.
We had another warm, beautiful, sunny day and the trails weren't too crowded.
After our first hike, we followed up with the 1-ish mile White Domes Trail loop with its slot canyon and movie set remains.
Mouse's Tank Trail was another short, easy hike with pretty views...
and petroglyphs!
We finished off our exploration with the little walking trail to see Elephant Rock. The area was beautiful. We didn't do any long hikes, but were able to fill our day with some fun short hikes.
After our day of exploring Valley of Fire, we headed back to Vegas for one more night before our early morning flight. We had dinner at Brewdog Las Vegas. The rooftop views were nice. The food was just okay. We walked for a bit on the strip, got milkshakes from The Shake Shack, and then headed back to pack up and go to bed.
Although the trip looked a little different than initially planned, we still had a good time. Flight delays and road closures and disappointing meals and mediocre hotels were not what defined our trip.
We explored a new national park, enjoyed some beautiful weather, had unplanned time to check out beautiful places not originally on our list, and, most importantly, enjoyed some quality time together. Hooray for another winning anniversary trip!
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
