Furnace Creek Campground

We arrived on a day of extreme heat danger as the outside heat temperature was 109 degrees! There are a few spots with trees for shade and we were lucky enough to get one. Our campsite had a hard flat gravel service with water and both 15A and 30A electrical service. After getting set up, we enjoyed a glass of wine and watched an awesome sunset. The park ranger was friendly and extremely helpful but was as anxious as us to get out of the heat. The campground was very quiet and we had a great stay. They only reason for 4 stars is that this campground does not have showers (that we could find). If you need a place to get out of the heat and enjoy a night in the desert, we would recommend this campground to you.

Summer begins April 15 and all sites are FCFS. It was a hot week in Death Valley and the campground was pretty empty. There are 136 sites, but only 18 with FHU. We paid the higher cost so we could run our AC. The fee was $36, $25 with a senior pass. The entrance shack was not open so we paid by credit card at the pay station at the entrance.

FHU sites were either back in or long pull throughs. Clean and stocked restrooms, outside sinks for washing dishes, dump station, visitor center adjacent, table and fire pit.

We had full bars of 3G but we were really only able to send and receive texts.

We stayed for 5 nights. My husband liked dish station with warm water!

Unfortunately, due to August flood many roads were closed.

Verizon has 4 bars 3G good enough to stream Netflix!

The Ranch at Death Valley has a general store, gas station, restaurant/bar but price is out of this world. Diesel $8.70, milk half gallon $5.60😱

Arrive with a full tank of gas and groceries!

Some people drive to Beatty, NV to get gas.

We barely made to Pahrump, NV with a 1/2 gallon but diesel was only $4.83👍❤️!

This was a first time at Furnace Creek Campground. It was a great campground. Loved staying here. Just be aware, only 18 sites have full hookups. All other sites are dry camping. Also, of the 136 sites, 52 are tent-only sites. The $10 fee was due to having a discount through our America the Beautiful Senior Pass. This is a National Park Campsite which takes reservations. Be sure to make a reservation. It was very quiet and fairly dark (half moon). Generator use is between 7am to 7pm. Clean restrooms, but no showers. Potable water is available, but not at the campsites. This was a very nice dry camping experience.
Positives:
+ Very quiet campground
+ Clean restrooms and potable water available
+ With the reservation system, no need to arrive early to get a campsite
+ Central location to all of the sights in Death Valley. Ubehebe crater, teakettle junction and racetrack playa were very interesting (long dusty gravel road though).
+ Was able to have a wood fire, yay!
Negatives:
+ Very little Verizon signal. I had no service on my phone. My wife's phone was able to get and send texts, occasionally. No data even through our Jet Pack.
+ Not really a negative, as we knew ahead of time, but it is a dry campground (except for the 18 full hookup sites)
+ Not a negative of the campground, but due to the isolation of the NP, fuel prices are very high in the park. Fuel up before entering. Diesel is quite a bit less expensive 38 miles east of Furnace Creek.

We were able to nab a FHU site which was great to have, though during this time of year it was fully needed, but we enjoyed it.

The campground is centrally located to all the sites to see within a short drive. There is a limited "store" with basic supplies. The restaurant was a little high priced, but you are 130+ miles away from any real town, so what do you expect. The food was to-go, COVID you know, well prepared and great tasting.

There is a large expansion going on of the hotel/motel, new store and rental equipment.

For fuel, well I was expecting to get hit harder than we did, paid about $1 more per gallon for diesel than we did in Bakersfield. If you are coming in through Trona, fuel up there, After that, nothing except the two stations in the park.

No TV, you are getting away from it all, right?

5 bar 3G AT&T cell service, worked fine if you needed to text of call someone, but don't expect much more than email reading.

Nothing fancy here - just spots in the desert within The National Park to base from. We stayed here a few years back, not so wisely in May so wanted a hookup site to run the air for the hot black Labrador... we did not reserve sites and had friends with their trailer along with us. Got lucky and grabbed two sites with electricity with nice views to the east. Nice dishwashing station & there are some nice tent sites as well. A great place to leave your camping gear, tent, RV or trailer and go explore the park! Next time we go in a cooler month...