This is a great stop while touring the park. There's a big parking lot with restrooms. You can view the dunes from the parking lot easily, but I highly recommend walking out onto the dunes a bit. This is such a photographic spot and so unlike any other spot in the park. read more

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Second to last stop of our day at Death Valley. Lots of people but lots of area, keep walking out to the untouched areas where you see the sand ripples on the ground. A peaceful spot to watch some of the sunset. read more

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This place is almost ethereal, it's so cool and quintessentially desert. I came on a Monday @the end of March around 11am and the temp was like 80F? Quite tolerable - the high for the day was 84F but bear in mind from April-Oct it gets MUCH hotter so come prepared with water and skin covering! This place is like 4-5 mins from stovepipe wells ranger station and market/gas station, so very convenient. You can park right at the entrance to the sand dunes and walk out as far or as little as you want - the views are incredible everywhere. Note that sand WILL get in your shoes even if you tread lightly - I did and still knocked out quite a bit of sand at the car. Also be mindful of windy days: it became windy right before I left the dunes so they were crystal clear while I was there, but on my way out of the park about 5 hrs later, there was basically a sandstorm totally obstructing the road/scenery, so it would actually be really difficult to navigate or get pics around there if it's too windy like that. Would def rec a visit, it's a crazy cool place! read more

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Fantastic scenery. Fun photo ops. Also excellent place to marvel at the stars at night, away from light pollution and air pollution. Over 1000 stars visible to the naked eye blanketed the night sky! You can easily make out Orion's Belt instantly. Can confirm constellations using free apps like SkyView. Dry terrain. Keep your car loaded with drinks and food. Not much restroom maintenance, but at least there are restrooms. Better go around winter, but layer up. Summers here can exceed 130°F. We walked about 2.5 mi (1-2 hr). read more

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This place is so unique and worth visiting in death valley national park. The San dunes are vast and you can walk along it and its amzing. Watch out for strong winds as it will carry the sand along with it. There is parking along and not an issue. Carry water and sunscreen for sure for this location. Also have your camera ready as you will keep takign pictures to catpure this beauty. What a beautiful place, simply amazing !!!! read more

Mesquite Flat Dunes - Parks Near Me

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November 3, 2024 We drove right passed this for the soul purpose of coming back through this area. Besides that sand gets hot ! I have never seen such diverse landscape throughout Death Valley National Park as I did today. The sand dunes was our last stop before filling up on gas and heading back home. this scenic spot offers a classic desert experience with soft sand dunes perfect for walking, playing, and sand boarding, and stunning views of the sunrise and sunset. This was our first time experiencing something such as this. I cannot wait on our next trip with a little bit more knowledge under my belt. I recommend everyone seeing this at least once in thier lifetime. read more

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Exploring the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes Like many first-time visitors, my first introduction to Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes occurred while driving through Death Valley National Park on CA-190. Noticing the sign and the cars parked in the lot, I pulled over. Before stopping there, like many other visitors to Death Valley, I was surprised to discover that it was not covered with sand everywhere. Later, I learned that less than one percent of the valley is covered in sand dunes! The sand dunes of Death Valley National Park are excellent places for photography and short hikes. The parking lot is about two miles east of Stovepipe Wells and is very easy to access. While many visitors take longer hikes and venture deeper into the area, others prefer to walk a short distance to enjoy the beautiful scenery. The dunes are named for the mesquite tree, which grows abundantly in the area. You can see many of these trees around. There is also plenty of wildlife, including sidewinder rattlesnakes, so be very careful where you step! Because the Dunes create dramatic shadows at sunrise and sunset, they provide a beautiful setting for photography enthusiasts. They are also a great place to observe the dark night skies for which Death Valley is famous. read more

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Walking on the sand dunes is otherworldly, the quiet expanse of the dunes had me feeling at peace and wishing I could stay another night to see the stars from this location. The sand is so fine and soft, it is amazing. Watch for tracks of the animals that live there and generally come out at night. Definitely worth a stop as you are driving through the park. read more

It is always fun to visit Death Valley National Park! During our visit in December 2023, most of the roads were still closed due to flooding in August. Because of that, we only had two options to explore, and we decided to go to Mesquite Flat Dunes for once since we have never been there. It's about a twenty minutes drive from the park entrance from the south. Once you arrive, you'll find plenty of parking spots. There are restrooms in the parking area. The dunes are huge open areas and you can walk up to as far as you want. The sand is very smooth and of course it's not easy to walk in there but it's worth it. It's definitely a beautiful sight! read more

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One of seven sand dune formations in Death Valley National Park. Very popular place. Kids are sliding down the dunes with plastic trays and sleds! Fun! No pets allowed. Keep them in the car. Ranger led a sunset walk and told about the dunes, and animals and plants that live here. Get the Rangers talk schedule from the Visitors Center. Driving by here several times to Mosaic trail and Stovepipe Wells for dinner, we saw people with flashlights walking the dunes in the dark! These dunes are active with people all day and night. We watched the sunset. read more

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While not as awesome as White Sands National Park you can still have plenty of fun sledding and exploring the sand dunes here. It's a great stop, especially at sunset. You need to know going into this experience that it does takes a lot of effort walking up and down the sand dunes. Also expect to dump a bunch of sand outta your shoes in the parking lot. Keep an eye open for ways to walk around taller dunes. If sledding isn't your thing seek out dunes that have no human tracks. If you look carefully you can see animal tracks like kangaroo rat, snake and lizard in the sand. Some areas have dried out ponds that have sealed in larger animal tracks like deer, coyotes, and bobcats. Sled tips - You'll need to walk deeper into the park to find the taller dunes. You'll also need to make a flat track down the dune. Waxing the bottom of the sled may help. read more

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One of the good places to see sunset and the night sky in the Death Valley. Small parking lot so we had to park at the shoulder area. Hiking in sand is good for burning off some calories. The lower one was easy to get to. For some higher ones was moderately challenging for some but the view is awesome. Some people brought along their boogie board. So much fun you can do in the sand dunes area. Did I mention that Star War was filmed here too. read more

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AMAZING. Definitely worth visiting if you go to the park. Very close to stovepipe wells, I think the main parking lot is only 2 miles away and you can see the dunes from stovepipe. I have been to DVNP 2x and we definitely spent a big chunk of the time at these sand dunes. If you are going to check it out don't forget to think about sunrise, sunset, and during the day. You will get 3 unique looks at it. With the winds constantly changing the sand, it will look unique each time that you go there. Some of the dunes are small and easy to traverse, but some are quite large and the sand is quite loose so you will get a nice work out getting to the top. Be prepared to get covered in sand, sand blown in your face, and for the heat during the day and hot months. Bring plenty of water, sun glasses or goggles, cool towels, etc. Don't just look at the dunes from the road or the parking lot, get out there and enjoy them. read more

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Awesome terrain, Easiest to visit: Death Valley National Park The first time we were in Death Valley National Park we just admired the sand dunes from our car as we drove past it in/out of Death Valley on our way to/from Las Vegas. Last weekend, though, we had a chance to romp, play, explore and experience walking on the sand and be like little kids on a playground. The sand was very fine and felt nice to dig our toes into. The dunes was easy access from the road. Drive 22 miles west from Furnace Creek on Highway 190 and you'll reach the dune's parking lot, located just on the outskirts of the Stovepipe Wells Village which is about 3 miles. The dunes cover a very huge area. In our flip-flops, we did some heavy walking on the soft sand until it got windy!! It was a good workout. LoL! There are a lot of pretty parts of the sand dunes for great landscape photography location... it's one of the most breathtaking and beautiful places I've ever had the chance to see. There are five sand dunes in Death Valley... Mesquite Flat is one of the smallest and most accessible. The others were too far out and more challenging to access: Panamint, Ibex, Saline Valley, and Eureka. The sand dunes also made it to Hollywood scenes in the Star Wars series. After all, Death Valley is only 5 hours away from Hollywood... the original Star Wars and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi The landscape of the dunes are always shifting and it'll probably look different the next time we revisit again. If it wasn't for the wind we would've stayed longer but it was well worth experiencing for the first time. Oh yah, one more thing... no off-roading allowed. All the dunes in the park are protected wilderness land. Review #2125 read more

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The Mesquite Flats Dunes includes three types of dunes: crescent, linear, and star shaped with the highest dune rising only about 100 feet (about 1mile out from parking lot) whether you drive by as you are headed to Stovepipe Wells via Hwy 190 or turn in to take in the stunning views of Death Valley. Once you kick of your shoes to put your toes in THE finest sand for a trek out across to take in the views, sand board or see if you can find animal tracks, you will NOT be disappointed. The parking lot is right of HWY 190 paved with pull-through spaces for buses and large RVs added bonus of restrooms too. Check out the signage that has additional information plus if you have an opportunity to come out during sunrise or sunset they say the colors and contrast of the shadows are ahhhmazing here. read more

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Hands down, the best stop while in Death Valley NP. These sand dunes are so majestic and so much fun to explore. Get your cardio prepared to climb ip and down the dunes because climbing on sand is a whole other beast to tackle. The sand, though, was surprisingly cool and soft on the feet. Best thing to do is get there in late afternoon and hike out to the tallest dune you can see to watch the sunset. It is an absolutely beautiful and peaceful experience. You will also get some amazing views of the park from the dunes as well. While we didn't do it, people also go sledding on the dunes. It looks like fun, so if it's something you want to do, plan ahead with a sled. 100% must stop. read more

Mesquite Flat Dunes are very easy to find within Death Valley National Park. They're very close to Stovepipe Village, a few miles away, they are well marked, with a parking lot and signs. So you can pull off the road and park and explore the beautiful dunes spreading right in front of you! We visited them in our first day in the park since it was on the way and we didn't plan to come back through this part of the park since we were staying in Nevada. The dunes are beautiful, vast, they go on for about 14 miles so you can see them from other roads inside the park. Wear sunscreen, shoes and bring a camera! The landscape is beautiful, the sand underneath you is soft, but easy to walk on and hike. You can keep going on like this for months! This is where they shot the original "Star Wars" for movie fans! They do tours here! You feel like you are in Egypt or some far away desert in the Middle East. But this is the beauty of Death Valley, so many places to visit, all so different from each other. Mesquite Dunes are so beautiful, serene, calm, undulating around you while you explore the never ending desert! read more

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wake up before dawn, grab some headlamps, snacks and water; just start hiking out as far as you can, and get away from all the footprints. if you're really lucky, strong overnight winds will wipe the dunes clean for you, providing a fresh palette for you to paint on the truth is, sunset is just okay here. but this might be one of the most beautiful places to watch the sun rise in the whole world :) read more

Mesquite Flat Dunes - watching the sun rise over the mesquite flat sand dunes - Parks Near Me

Gorgeous scenery of sand dunes that continues for thousands of years. Very popular tourist destination.

This san dunes located about two miles from Stovepipe Wells village where we stayed for two nights. It was a great place to see both the sunrise and sunset. read more

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what a great spot that we didn't even plan on stopping at! we were wandering our way through Death Valley when we saw sand dunes in the distance. Our poor pre-planning didn't even let us know there was a spot with Sand Dunes in the valley. as we got closer we noticed that it seemed to come right up to the road. After one more turn it was confirmed that there was a parking lot right off the road that you could hike right out into the dunes. We pulled in and grabbed our hiking gear and took off right away into the dunes. They were surprisingly large hills. It was hard to imagine what forces kept this fairly small desert of dunes in place and helped them be such mountainous hills at the same time. we took some pictures and struggled/hiked for an hour before heading back to the truck. It was a nice side stop as we worked our way through Death Valley and I would recommended anyone to not just drive past but stop in. Well worth it. read more

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You have several ways to appreciate the Mesquite Dunes. The quickest is to admire the dunes as you drive by either in or out of Death Valley. But you'll want to go at least one step further, if not more. Park your car in the parking lot and the placards just at the edge of the sand provide information about the topography encountered here. Take a few steps onto the dunes themselves to feel the sand, the contours of their shapes and admire the foliage that grows in these sands. If you are feeling very adventurous, you can hike out to the highest dune peak, just about one mile from the parking lot. If you are into photography, the dunes provide great opportunities for interesting shots in both color and black and white mediums. A very popular spot to pull over and admire or explore. read more