When we arrived in Death Valley a couple of weeks ago, we immediately headed to one of our favorite dispersed camping locations at Hole in the Wall Road. To our surprise, when we turned onto the dirt road, there was a big sign stating that camping was only allowed in designated sites with a permit available from Recreation.gov.
We had last visited here in 2022, and at that time, you were free to camp just about anywhere on this road so long as you practiced Leave No Trace principles, didn’t have a wood-burning fire, and were more than a 1/2 mile from the main road (state route 190). Since then, there have been some major changes that caught us off guard. We absolutely should have checked their website to make sure there were no changes since we were last there, and that is a good lesson learned for us. Things are always prone to change, especially popular camping locations!
The new updates to backcountry roadside camping in Death Valley include the following:
- To camp on any of the backcountry roadside corridors, you will need to secure a permit at Recreation.gov for a specific campsite. At the time of this writing, permits are $10/night. Permits are released on a 6-month rolling basis. For example, if you would like to camp here on February 1st, the first available date you could make your reservation would be August 1st of the previous year.
- There are limited campsites available on each road. Keep this in mind when determining when you should book your permit. We were able to snag a couple of permits last minute, but can imagine that they book up fast in the busy season. Following are the roadside camping locations and the number of campsites for each:
- Cottonwood Canyon – 10 campsites
- Echo Canyon – 9 campsites
- Greenwater Valley – 9 campsites
- Hole in the Wall – 6 campsites
- Marble Canyon – 4 campsites
- The designated campsites are very primitive. It’s actually kind of a stretch that they are even called campsites. From our experience camping at Hole in the Wall and Echo Canyon, the campsites we saw were merely pull-offs from the road. They were unlevel, full of gravel, and didn’t have tables or firepits. This isn’t much different than what there was before, buuuut it kind of feels like if you are paying for a campsite, you should get a little more.
- From Recreation.gov: “Roadside campsites are intended for high clearance vehicles only. Trailers, RVs and passenger vehicles will not be able to access most of these campsites. High clearance vehicles are defined as a SUV or truck, with at least 15 inch tire rims, and at least 8 inches of ground clearance, as measured from the lowest point of the vehicle (frame, suspension, body, differential).”
- All the backcountry areas continue to operate under Leave No Trace principles and it’s important to pack out all your waste. Also make sure to check current fire regulations. You are never allowed to have a fire on the ground, but certain times of the year, they do permit raised fire pits like a Solo Stove. Propane firepits are permitted year-round.
All that being said, we still had a great time at both Hole in the Wall and Echo Canyon. We were in sites H6 and E9 respectively and only saw one other person the whole time. It was peaceful and really made us feel like we had the whole place to ourselves. The campsites are all spaced over 1/4 mile apart from each other, so even if there were other people, you would still have that private feel.
We also absolutely love the central location of these roads in proximity to some of the main attractions in Death Valley. There are still other dispersed camping opportunities within the national park, but those are all a several hours drive from some of the popular sites (i.e., Mosaic Canyon, Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, Badwater Basin, Artist’s Drive, Zabriskie Point, Furnace Creek, etc.). We’ll certainly return to enjoy these campsites again, but will make sure that we are better prepared next time and have a reservation in advance.
We hope this information was helpful if you are considering backcountry camping in Death Valley. For more information and to see our experience at these sights, check out our YouTube video here:
Have you ever camped in Death Valley? Let us know your favorite places in the comments below!
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