Ubehebe Crater
North Death Valley NP · near Furnace Creek · California Desert
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Route type
- loop
- Distance
- 1.8 miles
- Elevation gain
- 350 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- Oct–Apr · Very exposed and windy; brutal in summer
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
- 600-ft-deep volcanic maar crater · Banded oxidized cinder · Little Hebe satellite crater · Big-wind rim walk
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- Walk the rim rather than descending — climbing back up the loose cinder is punishing. Pair it with a Racetrack or Scotty's Castle Road trip.
The guide
A half-mile-wide volcanic explosion crater, 600 feet deep, blasted out just ~2,000 years ago when magma hit groundwater. The ri…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Ubehebe Crater — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.0108, -117.4549