Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
two hours or more for the next available tour are common on high-traffic weekends and
holidays.
Three miles west of Scotty's pad, a rough 5-mile road leads to 770ft-deep
Ubehebe
groundwater. Hikers can loop around its half-mile-wide rim and over to younger
Little
It's slow going for another 27 miles on a tire-shredding dirt road to the eerie
Racetrack
rocks have etched into the dry lakebed. Despite the name, the Racetrack can be accessed
only on foot; it's completely off limits when the ground is wet. High-clearance vehicle and
off-road tires are required to reach the Racetrack; without them, in the likely event of a flat
tire, towing will set you back $1100.
There's a snack bar, but no gas station at Scotty's.
Towards Beatty
Driving north from Furnace Creek, Hwy 374 veers off Hwy 190 and runs 22 miles east to
Beatty, across the Nevada state line. About 2 miles outside the park boundary is the turnoff
to one-way
Titus Canyon Rd
, one of the most spectacular backcountry roads, leading
back toward Scotty's Castle in about 27 miles of unpaved track. The road climbs, dips and
winds to a crest in the Grapevine Mountains then slowly descends back to the desert floor
past a ghost town, petroglyphs and dramatic canyon narrows. The best light conditions are
in the morning. High-clearance vehicles are required. Check road conditions at the visitors
center.
town a few miles beyond the Titus Canyon turnoff, epitomizes the hurly-burly, boom-and-
bust story of Western gold-rush mining towns at the turn of the last century. Amid the
skeletal remains of houses, municipal buildings and a three-story bank is the 1906 'bottle
house' (built of beer bottles salvaged from town saloons). Also here is the bizarre
Gold-
well Open Air Museum
, a trippy art installation conceived by Belgian artist Albert Szukal-
ski.
Activities
