Death Valley Scenic Drive

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Death Valley Scenic Drive point 1

   Death Valley Junction is barely a town at all: a crossroads in the Amargosa Desert on the Nevada border, a cluster of buildings and a strange, beautiful old opera house. The adobe complex was built by the Pacific Coast Borax Company in the 1920s as a company town, with offices, a hotel and a community hall. In 1967 a New York dancer named Marta Becket stopped here with a flat tyre, saw the abandoned hall and decided to stay. She painted its walls with an audience of Renaissance figures and performed for them, and sometimes for real visitors, for more than four decades. The Amargosa Opera House still stands, and so does a sense that anything can happen out here.

   Read the complete Death Valley Scenic Drive point 1 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Death Valley Scenic Drive point 1 sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Death Valley Scenic Drive point 2.

2. 2. Death Valley Scenic Drive point 2

   Dante's View is where you go to understand Death Valley all at once. From a perch on the crest of the Black Mountains at around 1,670 metres, you look almost straight down to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, nearly two kilometres below you. The salt flats spread out white and glittering, and across the valley the Panamint Range rises to Telescope Peak, which often holds snow when the valley floor is baking. The contrast between the highest and lowest points is staggering, and on a clear morning you can see it all in a single sweep.

   Read the complete Death Valley Scenic Drive point 2 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Death Valley Scenic Drive point 2 comes up 26 km in. Next is Death Valley Scenic Drive point 3.

3. 3. Death Valley Scenic Drive point 3

   Zabriskie Point is the most famous view in Death Valley, and for once the crowds have a point. From a short paved path above Highway 190, you look out over a maze of eroded badlands, golden and brown and cream, folded and gullied like crumpled paper, with the sharp peak of Manly Beacon rising in the middle. Beyond it the valley floor stretches away to the Panamint Range. The rocks are the sediments of an ancient lake that dried up millions of years ago, tilted and uplifted by the same forces that are still pulling the valley apart.

   Read the complete Death Valley Scenic Drive point 3 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   52 km in you reach Death Valley Scenic Drive point 3. Next is Death Valley Scenic Drive point 4.

4. 4. Death Valley Scenic Drive point 4

   At Badwater you are standing 86 metres below sea level, at the lowest point in North America. Look up at the cliffs of the Black Mountains behind the car park and you will see a small sign high on the rock marking sea level, which gives you a sense of how deep this hole really is. In front of you, the salt flats stretch for kilometres, a crust of white crystals pushed up into hexagonal ridges by the cycles of rare floods and evaporation.

   Read the complete Death Valley Scenic Drive point 4 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Death Valley Scenic Drive point 4, about halfway. Next is Death Valley Scenic Drive point 5.

5. 5. Death Valley Scenic Drive point 5

   Artists Drive is the place where Death Valley shows off its colours. The one-way loop leaves the Badwater road and climbs into the foothills of the Black Mountains, winding through narrow washes and over small crests, past slopes of red, yellow, green, purple and pink rock. The highlight is Artists Palette, a hillside streaked with colour from the oxidation of different minerals: iron gives the reds and pinks, manganese the purples, and chlorite and other minerals the greens. It looks almost painted, and in the late afternoon light it glows.

   Read the complete Death Valley Scenic Drive point 5 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Death Valley Scenic Drive point 5 sits at 103 km, late in the day. Next is Death Valley Scenic Drive point 6.

6. 6. Death Valley Scenic Drive point 6

   Stovepipe Wells is the second, smaller hub of Death Valley, a little settlement on Highway 190 at the edge of the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. The name comes from a length of stovepipe that early travellers stuck into the sand to mark the location of a well, which was often buried by drifting dunes. Today there is a hotel, a general store, a restaurant, a campground and fuel, which makes it a welcome stop after the long ride across the valley.

   Read the complete Death Valley Scenic Drive point 6 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Death Valley Scenic Drive point 6 comes up 184 km in.