An Impromptu Road Trip to Death Valley with Neco

If there’s one thing Neco and I do well, it’s going through with a poorly planned idea at the last minute. We’ve found that, for some reason, these spontaneous plans always seem to land in the month of January — last year, we decided to run a marathon. This year, it was a spur-of-the-moment trip to Death Valley.

There was no rhyme or reason to this trip, just wanted to kick off the year by seeing someplace new and actually put use to that National Parks pass that collected dust last year. So we packed up the car and drove, getting to the park just in time to catch sunset at Artists Palette.

After checking into our hotel around 5:30 p.m. and learning that the (unsettling) hotel buffet (and only restaurant within 50 miles) was closing in thirty minutes, we bunkered up in our room and decided our Trader Joe’s popcorn and seaweed snacks sounded like a perfectly nutritious dinner before we woke up for an early hike.

The next morning, we caught sunrise at Zabriske Point and hiked through the golden canyon, a place we’re still not convinced is not a painting. From there, we drove over to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America. While we were looking forward to seeing the characteristic salt polygons that are showcased all over the internet, we were instead surprised with the view of a shallow lake — a rare treat, thanks to the winter rains! The water gave us the prettiest reflection of the mountains and we walked around here for a long while.

Afterwards, we finally ate a real meal at the saloon in town before driving over to our last destination — the coveted Mesquite sand dunes — a spot we intentionally saved for last. We spent hours walking through here as the sun set. With no real trail, we wandered for hours and came across so many of Death Valley’s hidden gems along the way, like roadrunner tracks in the dried mud and dead trees that looked like sculptures.

And like most everything else on this trip, we decided on a last minute plan to stay in Vegas that evening. We treated ourselves to some ramen at Momofuku, grabbed a sweet treat, and edited photos in our room at the MGM before calling it a night.

As someone who’s entire personality revolves around planning things at least eight months ahead, these small spontaneous journeys with Neco remind me that the unexpected moments can be just as fun. I can’t wait to see what next January will bring.