Telescope Peak
Panamint Range, Death Valley NP · near Stovepipe Wells · California Desert
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- expert
- Route type
- out-and-back
- Distance
- 14 miles
- Elevation gain
- 3,300 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- Late May–Oct · Road snowed shut ~Nov–Mar; the inverse of the valley floor
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- $30/vehicle 7-day Death Valley NP entrance fee (card only). Day hikes need no other permit; overnight backcountry needs a free Recreation.gov permit.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 1 of 5
What is here
- Features
- Park's highest summit (11,049 ft) · Sees Badwater AND Mt. Whitney · Ancient bristlecone pines · 10,000-ft vertical relief
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- This reverses Death Valley's usual rules — attempt it in summer, never winter, and only when the Mahogany Flat road is open and snow-free. Start pre-dawn.
The guide
The crown of Death Valley — from the summit you can see both the lowest point in North America (Badwater, −282 ft) and the high…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Telescope Peak — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 36.2299, -117.0732