seattle to san francisco road trip planner

My Luna sandals are perfect for water and lose sand hiking, FYI. The sand is actually very densely packed, so I was happy that I wore my Danner shoes instead of my Luna sandals. What I wore: I had my Gorumpl blanket, some layers, and a bar for breakfast. Luckily, we managed to find some perfectly sharp and un-touched dunes on the right side of the area.

Sunrise was at 7 am the next day, so we started hiking at around 6 am. It cooked ramen in the car and got cleaned up with water and wet wipes we packed along. We found a dirt road right off Stovepipe Wells and car camped at one of the pullouts a mile away from the paved road for the night. I was here for sunset the first night, but we did not get to hike to the dunes we were hoping to get to since the winter sunset was way too fast. Pack along with some snacks, water, and layer if you hike the dunes in the winter. My tip is to just walk further in to find the tall dunes with no footprints. From the parking lot, just head straight in to find your favorite spot on the dunes. There are no formal or marked trail signs here. Hike Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, Death Valley, CA

Learn about Death Valley camping here!įor the rest of the trip, we booked hotels along the way and stayed at a relative on the east side of California.Ħ. Campgrounds are closed to discourage group gatherings of 8 or more people. Since the park is so big, disperse camping is encouraged as long as you follow the park’s rules. However, Death Valley National Park itself was still open, except the road to Scotty’s Castle north of Death Valley. It’s the closest to Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, so we did successfully wake up early and completed the hike to the tallest dunes for sunrise.ĭue to COVID and the stay-at-home order at the time, all National Park campgrounds and lodging in California were closed (as of winter 2020 – 2021). The second night, we stayed on a dirt road a mile away from the paved road in Stovepipe Wells. We ended up sleeping in the car twice, and the first night in a city near Death Valley. We did anticipate at least some nights sleeping in the car, so we packed along with pillows, blankets, and our camping kit. The first car that we got was filled with cigarette smells, so we switched out to a new car in Portland. My partner and I rented an SUV with high clearance for off-road and winter driving.

North California and Oregon Coast were initially in our plan, but we did California Coast and visited some relatives in San Jose before driving straight home to Seattle. After that, we spent a few days at a relative’s house on the east side of Los Angeles. Initially, we wanted to do Alabama Hills and Death Valley first but ended up doing Joshua Tree instead because of the rain. First night, we drove through the night and made it to a hotel in Reno, Nevada.

Seattle to san francisco road trip planner