Highlights: Highway 155 •  Highway 178 • Highway 190 • Highway 127 • Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes • Badwater Basin • Zabriskie Point • Dante's View • Artist's Palette • Stovepipe Wells 

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The first tour of the season is the best! It's the opener. The pacesetter. The FIRST time, we finally shake off the cobwebs from the corners of our brains and head out for a weekend of riding. Join Pashnit Tours as we head for this National Park tucked away in this far corner of California along the Nevada border.

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Destination Mojave Desert...

 

Our tour begins from Tulare in Central California, at the edge of the Sierra Nevada Foothills. South of Porterville, we'll enter this treeless, grassy ranch land that thrusts & heaves about. The roads here are fantastic!. Deserted, with the elevation constantly climbing toward the Sierra Nevada range that looms even closer with each passing mile.

On through the small ranch town of Glennville puts the tour on Highway 155. Then we'll ride up and over the Sierra Nevada Range through Alta Vista and into the Kern River basin.

 

Here, the Sierra Nevada range splits into two fingers, carved in half by the Kern River.
 

Ridgecrest Northward...

Skirting the edge of Lake Isabella, the group will ride through Ridgecrest and enter Death Valley from the southern entrance of Highway 178.

Death Valley is the largest park in the contiguous 48 states. The valley itself is 130 miles long, between 6 and 13 miles wide and is surrounded by steep mountain ranges: the Panamint Mountains to the west, and the Black, Funeral, and Grapevine mountains to the east. Its three million acres of wilderness and rich cultural history make it a lifetime's work to explore all that the valley has to offer.

Death Valley is also the lowest point in North America and one of the hottest places in the world. The highest peak in the park and in the Panamint Mountains rises 11,049 feet above sea level and lies only 15 miles from the lowest point in the United States in the Badwater Basin salt pan, 282 below sea level.

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Hottest. Lowest. Tallest.

Death Valley is one of the hottest places in the world. Air temperatures over 120 °F  are common during the summer months of June, July, August and September. The record high in the park was recorded in 1913 at a blazing 134 °F Since it is often up to four degrees hotter near Badwater than it is Furnace Creek where the official record was recorded, it is entirely likely that Death Valley should hold the title as the hottest place on earth. Fortunately, temperatures November through March are mild, with highs averaging in the 60s and 70s with winter nighttime lows usually in the 40s.

Want to ride? Here's the next step...

 

Saturday, our tour will have the group headed out for a clockwise loop around the Black Mountain Range. First visiting Scotty's Castle, then southward on Hwy 190 to Dante's View at 5475 feet. The tour will continue south to Death Valley Junction and the Armargosa Playhouse, then back north on Hwy 178 along Badwater Rd past Furnace Creek Resort.

Death Valley is a different kind of tour. Distances are vast, roads are wide open & straight with gentle curves in desert regions.

 

We'll be headed there in March, when temps are mild and with any luck, winter rain can produce vast fields of wildflowers permeating the scene in full bloom. Despite the region's famous temperatures, Death Valley is an intensely scenic and awe-inspiring nook tucked away in this corner of California.

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Many of our riders say they have lived in California for years, if not decades, and they've never been to Death Valley.

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Time to change that.

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See photos from the latest Death Valley ride.