Sunset Campground

Lets face it, it is what it is - a big gravel parking lot. But here's the deal - it's centrally located, inexpensive, and there's always room. We stayed here back in 2016 when the super bloom was occurring and even then, with the park overrun with tourists and campers, there was room. When the main lot gets full, the park opens overflow areas. It's really nice to know that there is still one National Park where you can pull in and find a place to camp without making a reservation nine months in advance.

Actually, Sunset is not a bad place to camp. The view isn't bad at all, there are restrooms with flush toilets, a dump station (with potable water), and utility sinks for tent campers. There are pretty generous generator hours, but actually most campers seem to do without which is nice. We always end up having interesting neighbors at Sunset and enjoy the people we meet here. It's a very democratic sort of campground - people camping in tents, vans, big 40' class A motorhomes, truck campers, trailers, even their cars. Everybody is welcome!

One thing to note: we always looked forward to going across the street to the Furnace Creek Ranch general store for a coffee and ice cream bar, but the ranch is undergoing renovation at the moment and the store has moved to much smaller, temporary and hard to find digs (near the golf course). Construction is supposed to be finished this summer, but don't get your hopes up. You can walk to the DV visitors center though and that's a plus.

Tip: fuel up before you come - gas is expensive in the park, especially at Furnace Creek.

This is a great National Park Campground right in the middle of Furnace Creek in Death Valley. There are no hookups. But, good dump station on site. Good water source on site. No reservations. Very likely you don't need them. Even if full there is an overflow area just north of the campground. Generator hours 7am - 9pm. This is a large paved campground with RV sites painted in. Some site are pull throughs and some back in. Lots of room.

The beauty of this park is, well, the beauty. Lovely views right from your campsite either day or night. And you are right in the middle of the points of interest in Death Valley. There are lots of points of interest in this park and especially if you have a 4WD vehicle. There are lots of dirt tracks and 4WD trails.

The best time to go here is Oct - April. We went in March this year and it was the best weather we have ever had in visiting DV. We had sun, clouds, rain, clear night skies, and great temps. Some of the most noted sites were pretty crowded like Zabrisky Point. Once you got off the paved roads the crowds thin a lot. And once you get on the 4WD tracks there are no crowds.

Next door to this campground and up a little hill is the Furnace Creek Inn which is now called the Lodge at Death Valley. Why they renamed this very famous old hotel is beyond me. If you have the budget for a good meal do go here to eat. Beautiful old hotel with very good service and casual elegant surroundings. They also have a very nice spa. And rooms if you do not bring your RV starting at $495. The food is excellent +.

Our Verizon coverage was 3G and you can make and get phone calls. I had no luck getting any data. There is wifi in the campground from the Lodge and a daily charge for it. It works but is very slow.

We stayed in the overflow area which we ended up liking more than the main area. We chose one of the busier weeks of the 49er Encampment but it wasn't too bad in the overflow area. Our solar was cranking so we only ran our generator a few times to cool off after a couple of 95 degree days.

No internet on Verizon but extended network voice.

No frills, no fire rings, no picnic tables, no hookups, but, and this is the most important part, no reservations!

The Sunset campground (or, if you will, glorified parking lot) isn't nearly as nice as the Furnace Creek campground across the street (reservations only during peak season), or the Texas Spring campground up the hill (which primarily for tent campers but has a few spots for RVs), but it is always the easiest one to find a spot during the busy seasons in the park in Furnace Creek, and thus is quite appealing to the non-planners among us.

Death Valley National Park is one of my favorite places on the planet, and Furnace Creek makes an excellent base camp for seeing some of the most beautiful parts of the park (the badlands at Zabriskie Point, Twenty Mule Team Canyon, and Artists Drive; The salt flats at Badwater, the Mesquite Flat sand dunes near Stovepipe wells, and much more).

There are liberal generator hours (7AM to 9PM when we were there), and the campground as a result can be quite loud. There is also (usually) liberal sunshine so our solar panel did just fine for us. The road noise was tolerable and was a non-issue except for the handful of times a caravan of motorcycles drove by.

There is a dump station/water fill in the campground, and there are no other water spigots besides the one at the dump station. There are restrooms scattered throughout and they were all clean. Many sites are quite large and are effectively pull-thru. Showers can be purchased across the street in Furnace Creek (last we used them, $6 will get you access to the shower and pool for 24 hours).

In theory there is a 30 day annual stay limit but this does not appear to be enforced nor enforceable unless you stay more than 30 consecutive days. You pay by credit card at one of a handful of kiosks throughout the campground.

As of March 2016, AT&T offers much better service than Verizon. When it is moderately busy, the Verizon tower is easily overwhelmed, when it is super busy (as it was on the weekend during the super bloom earlier this year), the AT&T tower can be overwhelmed as well, though we only saw that happen once during about 6 weeks of staying in Death Valley. Note that if you have a pre-paid plan on AT&T it will not work here as it is a roaming tower (so you will need a monthly subscription plan on AT&T to use it, we found that out the hard way).

Pahrump, NV (which has two grocery stores and a Wal-Mart) is an hour away, so stock up beforehand. The little general store in Furnace Creek has some essentials but limited selection.

The food quality at the Furnace Creek restaurants varies considerably even within the same week for the same meal, but the staff are friendly, and you can easily walk to them (and the Visitor Center) from the campground.

The post office at Furnace Creek can accept FedEx and UPS deliveries (go inside and ask them for details).

When the campground is almost full, they will open the two overflow sections (a smaller "Overflow X" lot located right by the campground entrance, and a gigantic overflow area near the dump station). These areas are much less busy and noisy, but they will quickly shut them down once the main campground has availability. This is an annoying NPS policy, I would much prefer the overflow areas to be open all the time, rather than forcing everyone to be packed close together in the main campground.

We actually enjoyed this campground quite a bit when it wasn't busy (once in the Overflow X lot before they kicked us out, and then in the primary campground area when there were only a handful of people in mid January before the super bloom), and you can't beat the location.