Monday, October 7, 2019
Mesquite Flats is best done early morning, well before the heat of the day.
This is, apparently, an area of Death Valley that gets unnaturally hot. The highs this week in October were in the nineties (Fahrenheit). Some visitors found the afternoon highs uncomfortably hot.
More importantly, the parking lot fills up before lunch and the place gets crowded when tour buses pull in.
In the morning or late in the afternoon, when the sun is low in the sky, the dunes and the mountains are more scenic.
Scenic dunes occupy the middle of the valley with mountains as the back drop.
Walking into the dunes, visitors will find the scene constantly shifting as they move across the dune field.
Footsteps go out into the dune field a mile or more. People really like getting out in the middle of the dune field.
More plants grow in areas near the dune field edges,
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes are on CA-190 west of Stovepipe Wells Village.
The sand dunes’ parking lot is within a few miles of Stovepipe Wells.
Hope to see you on the road ahead!