Las Vegas to Lone Pine in One Day: Through Death Valley to the Eastern Sierra

Death Valley makes a spectacular one-day crossing if you plan for fuel and heat. This route leaves Las Vegas at 6:45 am, runs west to Pahrump and crosses the desert to Death Valley Junction, about two hours on the road before the first stop. Then comes a string of very different landscapes: the golden badlands of Zabriskie Point, the salt flats of Badwater Basin at 282 ft (86 m) below sea level, and the green oasis of Furnace Creek, where one stop covers the visitor center and a saloon lunch.

The afternoon is the long haul. CA-190 crosses Towne Pass into the wide Panamint Valley (plan 75 to 80 minutes even though the router says 61), with a short fuel stop at Panamint Springs, then CA-190 and CA-136 carry you over to the Owens Valley, where the Sierra Nevada rises abruptly in front of you. The Alabama Hills at its foot are a boulder-strewn film-set landscape (hundreds of films, according to Wikipedia) with arches that frame Mount Whitney. The day ends with dinner in Lone Pine.

The rhythm is five stops with uneven gaps: about two hours of driving to the first stop, a tight cluster of three stops in the park's core within about an hour (Zabriskie Point, Badwater, Furnace Creek), then roughly 75 minutes to Panamint Springs and 70 minutes to the Alabama Hills. Fuel is the thing to watch: fill up in Las Vegas, top up at Furnace Creek (and at Stovepipe Wells if needed), and fill up again at Panamint Springs, the last fuel before Lone Pine. Winter and spring are the best seasons; the NPS puts summer highs at 110-116 degrees F and advises against more than about 15 minutes outside at Badwater in the extreme heat.

Three alternatives are mapped below: the Artists Drive loop, a north-side route through the ghost town of Rhyolite and Daylight Pass, and a longer approach on CA-127 through Shoshone.

Weekday assumption. The plan assumes a Saturday departure. Seasons Restaurant is open Tuesday to Saturday evenings per its site, so a Tuesday to Saturday departure works; otherwise find another dinner in Lone Pine.

When to go. Best months are November to March. NPS lists summer highs of about 110-116 F and an October average high of 93 F; the stretch from Badwater to Panamint Springs has little shade, so avoid summer and early fall. Spring is windy. Sunrise/sunset (computed with the NOAA solar equations, Pacific time): Las Vegas Nov 15 6:16 am / 4:33 pm, Dec 21 6:47 / 4:29, Feb 15 6:29 / 5:20; Lone Pine Nov 15 6:29 / 4:44, Dec 21 7:00 / 4:39, Feb 15 6:41 / 5:31. The 6:45 am start is timed so the Alabama Hills stop ends by about 4:10 pm, before Lone Pine sunset even in December.

Fuel and supplies. Fill up in Las Vegas (the sign stop). Fuel in the park: The Ranch at Death Valley in Furnace Creek, Stovepipe Wells (24 h per an NPS alert) and Panamint Springs, the last before Lone Pine. Carry water and download offline maps as a precaution. From Furnace Creek to Lone Pine is about 110 miles with fuel only at Stovepipe Wells and Panamint Springs.

Totals. 263.2 mi and 5 h 9 min of OSM-router driving across six legs. The schedule allows 17 extra minutes on the Furnace Creek to Panamint Springs leg (78 minutes planned vs 61 from the router), so real arrival times run a little later than the sum of the legs. No tolls anywhere on the route.

Timing. Leave the sign 7:00 (after a 15-minute photo and fuel stop from 6:45), Zabriskie Point 9:05, Badwater 9:55, Furnace Creek 11:00 (visitor center, then lunch), leave Furnace Creek 12:25, Panamint Springs 13:45, leave 14:00, Alabama Hills 15:15, back in Lone Pine by 16:20 and dinner at 5:00 pm. Opening hours were taken from the sources listed on each stop; confirm before you go.