Deciding on Death Valley

Compared to the average Portland winter, this winter was long and exhausting. We had five major winter storms over five weeks. After those finally went away it was just wet and cold. Steph couldn’t handle it anymore.

Since visiting Joshua Tree National Park in 2014 we have always wanted to go back. I think our time in Arizona and our road trip back then real changed our opinion of how amazing the desert is. We set our sights on Joshua Tree NP with a spin thru Death Valley NP until we read this tweet

Lots of visitors means limited campsites. We hope this flowchart helps you plan your visit!
Alternative camping - https://t.co/zEJ4nO6KME pic.twitter.com/q5b3SOfB6y

— Joshua Tree NPS (@JoshuaTreeNPS) March 21, 2017

We then started to refine our criteria, research Death Valley and the surrounding region.

• Warm weather. Check.
• Sun. Check. 
• Beautiful. Check. 
• Isolation. Check.
• Soakable hot springs. Check.

After watching some National Geographic videos about Death Valley we checked out the weather reports. We researched weird and unusual things, hot springs, dispersed camping and remote back roads. Our opinion of Death Valley was really looking good. We were excited.