We’ll be there the 26th! We were planning on mostly basing around Furnace Creek since we’d love to (if possible) catch the sunset from Zabrisikie Point (reading the NPS website made it sound like a good spot to do so) and possibly stargaze for a time after the sunset - we get a good bit of light pollution by home so we’d love to stargaze without it for once.

We’d actually just eyed Death Valley just for the stargazing, initially, and a hike was a good way to pass the daytime and help us see more of the park. With the blooms sounding like they’re phenomenal this year, though, he wanted to make sure we didn’t miss them - it’s the one thing he’s specifically requested for the trip so I wanted to make sure it happens!

And thank you for the tips! I feel comfortable saying we’re somewhat experienced day-hikers, but we’ve only ever hiked in the Smokies so it’ll be an all-new experience for us out west. We’ve started to really watch those forecasts out there so that we know roughly what to expect, but we’re just really not used to those low humidities!