Death Valley National Park, Northern Section

Ubehebe Crater, Death Valley National Park

I think Mesquite Spring campground is the nicest developed campground in the park. You can't make reservations at Mesquite Springs but I've never seen it completely full. Ubehebe Crater and Scotty's Castle are the big attractions in the Northern section of the park. There are no gas stations in this part of the park nor are there any gas stations outside of the park in Nevada. Beatty and Tonopha are the closest places with services. Both of them are further away than Furnace Creek. When I visited in 2014 the road from Scotty's Castle to Nevada was closed. I don't know when it will reopen. Because of it's isolation and relative lack of big attractions the Northern part of the park has fewer visitors. Most of the Northern part of the park is inaccessible unless you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. I haven't yet been to places like The Racetrack, Eureka Dunes and Saline Valley but hope to go next year. Apparently the roads to Eureka Dunes and Saline Valley are just barely passable with a 2 wheel drive vehicle. I'm excited to try it.

The Northern part of Death Valley has the darkest night skies. It has however been incredibly windy every time I've been in the North part of Death Valley making long exposures close to impossible. The wind though seems to follow the same pattern as on the coast. It gets progressively windier until sunset. Then throughout the night the wind calms down. Just before sunrise then would be the best or only possible time to photograph the night sky.

Near Ubehebe Crater, Death Valley National Park

Death Valley National Park

 

All content on these pages Copyright Mark Hedlund 2012-2019. All rights reserved. Use in school projects and with links on social media is always okay. Please send me an email to request permission for any other use: hedlunch@yahoo.com Non-exclusive commercial publication rights for most photos is $25 per image.