Best Tent Camping near Death Valley National Park

Perfect base camp for exploring Death Valley National Park. It's located a quarter mile from the Furnace Creek Visitor Center where you can check in to pay the park fee and ask the rangers any questions. They always post the current weather and encourage visitors to stay safe in the heat. It's about 20 minutes from main attractions in the park including the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, Zabriskie Point and Badwater Basin Salt Flats.

Campground Pros: Nice bathrooms and large sinks for dishes (also with potable water), Sizable camping spots, great location

Campground Cons: Very little shade, plan to bring a canopy if you are tent camping, no showers

Overall a great campground - just make sure you're visiting when the weather is decent. Super hot temps can ruin the experience pretty quick - and fill your tank before you drive into the park!

This is the same basic campgrounds you get through this entire Death valley National park... 

The thing this park is missing is  SHADE for starters... please be aware of how hot it is here and that the sun has no mercy so please pack a pop-up, hat, etc....

anything to keep you shaded from the elements.

Besides that, they do have nice picnic tables at each spot and you can fit two smaller tents at each spot if needed so you are sharing the cost with some buddies... which is always good.

trash cans available and recycle areas for your propane tanks... 

which this entire park has and I love seeing that.

Mother nature needs all the help she can get.

Not much privacy for campers or RVers... Its a parking spot with lines showing your area.. NOT MUCH ELSE

Nice handwashing stations.. BRING YOUR OWN SOAP

Bathrooms could be a little cleaner but you have flushing toilets and water to wash your hands. Bring your own soap they do not provide.

They have potable water

Stunning views

But like I said basic and shadeless...

Perfect for a bunch of friends driving out for sure it does have pros and your right by all the action.

cheers.

Pros: Reasonably priced, fairly quiet campground that is close enough to Furnace Creek w/out being in the thick of it. Great scenery surrounding the campground. Modern toilet/sink facilities and potable water.

Cons: Weird site designs - the site boundaries are not clear, so I had no idea which picnic table or fire ring belonged to my site or my neighbors because they seemed to be situated right on the edge of some of the sites. Almost no shade (which is a given), and the campground is very dusty covered in sharp edged cobbles. This is obviously not something they can control, but you'll want to keep it in mind if tent camping - definitely bring 1 if not 2 heavy duty tarps for under any tents, and I would recommend a canopy or awning of some kind. The oddest thing to me, however, is why they would go to the trouble of installing flush toilets and sinks, but not go one extra step and have showers. Even cold-water only coin-op showers would be awesome, and much appreciated at the end of a hot day hiking!

Given all of the above, however, I'd probably choose to camp here again if I was in the park. :)

All of the campgrounds in the valley are glorified parking lots, some more obviously than others. Texas Springs holds our favorite distinction, “No generators allowed!” This alone makes it worth the short drive up the hill, but it’s also got a little bit more charm than the open acres down the hill. The open sky makes it the perfect place to rely on your solar power as there are no electrical hookups here.  Within walking distance of the Visitors Center, the hotel, grocery store, gas station and restaurants, all contained in the Ranch at Death Valley, it’s a great base camp for your park adventures. 

The simple bathrooms have flush toilets and hand washing sinks, great dishwashing sinks with good tasting potable water are just outside of the bathrooms. The sites are stacked pretty tightly together, so there’s not a lot of privacy and there is zero, I mean zero, shade. All of the palm trees are down at the resort, but the scenery is all mudstone, sand and gravel, and it is lovely.  Climb up the hill a short way and you can see clear across Badwater Basin and Panamint Mountains to the west. Sunrise is as lovely as sunset. 

This is Death Valley afterall, so come prepared to set up a canopy but be careful of wind- we saw many shade structures destroyed and discarded in the dumpsters. Mobile service was pretty spotty, we had Verizon which seemed to have a good signal in the morning until more people woke up and then everything slowed down. Service throughout the park was pretty spotty. Showers (and use of the pool) and wifi are available at the Ranch for an hourly or daily fee. 

Biking, hiking and even golf are just a few of the activities available nearby, but pay attention to Park warnings about heat. Pets are not allowed on any of the trails and only allowed to be walked on roadways, because of the hot conditions found on some of the trails. We visited in February/March and found some of the canyons pretty uncomfortable, even that early in the spring.

General: 81 BLM sites within the shadow of the eastern Sierras. All are first come, first available with a 14-day limit, but we had no problem finding a choice of sites on a Monday in early April around 12:30 pm. You can’t beat the price of $10 ($5 with a Golden Age Pass)! Surprisingly good cell coverage (Verizon)! The views of the mountains are awesome!

Site Quality: Gravel and most looked level. No hookups of any kind. A fire ring (with grill), lantern hook, and large concrete picnic table complete the site. 

Toilets: More than an adequate number of vault toilets sprinkled throughout the campground and at least the one by our site was clean and had hand sanitizer. 

Activities: We spent our day exploring nearby beautiful Alabama Hills (about a 10-minute drive from the campground), driving out Movie Road, and taking a few short hikes. 

Just several things to note (but they did not detract from our stay): 

1. since our site was near Tuttle Creek, the mosquitoes came out in droves at dusk, 

2. you will hear (but not see!) a steady sound of fighter stealth jets from Edwards Air Force Base flying overhead from about 8 am to 8 pm) and 

3. There are gnarly speed bumps on the road into the campground. Other than that, the unpaved road is well-maintained.

I wish we had planned to spend another night here!

I thought this was a great campground at the right time of year. The spaces are huge and a nice distance from your neighbor. Vault toilets were kept clean, full of toilet paper and hand sanitizer. We were there in mid-March and the water was not turned on yet. Next to each picnic table was a post to hang a lantern on or anything else you may need to hang. Cell reception was pretty good.

There was very little shade at this campground which was great in March, but would be a big concern as the weather warms up. Our first night there was very windy and we realized the campsites on the southern side of the creek would have been a better choice as there was some shelter from the wind there.

We didn't camp here, rather we used this as the start/finish point for our 2-day hike to the summit of Mt. Langley. It was a convenient place to park, because you drive right up to the trailhead, and there are trash cans, bear boxes, and vault toilets. We stashed some extra toiletries in the bear boxes, rather than risk leaving them in the car. Toilets were pretty clean. Unfortunately, the potable water spigots were already turned off. The national forest website said they are off in the winter, but I didn't expect that already in early September. This is an equestrian campground, so there was some horse dung on the trails around the campground.