Death Valley 4WD Routes
Death Valley National Park · near Furnace Creek / Lone Pine / Ridgecrest · California Desert
Off-Road
At a glance
- Skill level
- intermediate
- Size
- 3.4 million acres · 1,000+ miles of paved and unpaved roads
- Best season
- October–April · Summer is genuinely life-threatening (125°F+ recorded) · Spring wildflowers (Feb–March) exceptional in wet years
Permits and booking
- Permit
- NPS fee applies ($35/vehicle for 7 days or America the Beautiful Pass). No additional permit for 4WD routes on established roads. Back-country camping requires a free backcountry permit (self-register at visitor center). Titus Canyon is one-way only — rangers enforce this. Racetrack access subject to road conditions — call 760-786-3200 for current status.
What is here
- Terrain
- desert-wash · overland · mountain-4x4
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Off-Road detail
- Vehicles
- 4x4-jeep · overland
- Signature routes
- Titus Canyon Road (27 miles, one-way) · Racetrack Road (28 miles to Racetrack Playa) · Lippincott Grade (descending to Racetrack)
- Intl tip
- Death Valley is 2 hours from Las Vegas and 4 hours from Los Angeles. Furnace Creek Resort has accommodation and the only services in the central Valley. Arrive with more water, fuel, and food than you think you need — distances between services are much greater than they appear on a map, and temperature extremes can turn minor problems into emergencies.
The guide
Death Valley contains more vertical change than any national park in the US — from the lowest point in North America (Badwater …
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Death Valley 4WD Routes — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 36.5323, -116.9325