Death Valley Backcountry

Death Valley National Park keeps hundreds of miles of unpaved backcountry roads open to visitors, and the Park Service is specific about how you may use them. Only street-legal, licensed vehicles are allowed, travel is restricted to designated roads, and off-road driving is prohibited anywhere in the park. OHVs, ATVs, and UTVs are not permitted, so this is a trip for a registered truck or SUV, not a trailered play rig. The classic routes give you a good cross section of the park: Titus Canyon Road drops one way through a narrow limestone canyon past the ghost town of Leadfield, Racetrack Road runs a long washboard grade out to the playa, and Echo Canyon rewards patient drivers with remote camps and old mine works, as does the Warm Springs to Butte Valley run. Roadside camping is allowed along dirt roads more than one mile from any paved road or day-use-only road, with the valley floor between Ashford Mill and a point two miles north of Stovepipe Wells closed to it. Several corridors, including Echo Canyon, Hole in the Wall, Cottonwood and Marble Canyons, and Greenwater Valley, require a backcountry camping permit, so our older note that no permit is needed is wrong for those routes. A park entrance fee applies. The Park Service recommends carrying two full-size spares, an air compressor, and a plug kit, and it recommends off-road tires over street tires because the sharp volcanic gravel out here shreds sidewalls. Heat is the other hazard. Summer days routinely run past 110 degrees, and a breakdown on a remote road in July is a genuine emergency rather than an inconvenience. Check the park's current conditions page before every trip, since flood damage closes individual roads for long stretches.