My son (age 12) and I are back from spending 1 week in NV/CA during his February vacation break. As we are from New England, we took this opportunity to soak up the sun and the warmth.

Our itinerary:
Fly into/out of Las Vegas
3 nights Boulder City Nevada
3 nights Ranch at Furnace Creek inside Death Valley National Park
1 night Las Vegas airport hotel

Why this destination?
We try to travel during school vacation. Since we don't ski, we often look for warmer destinations. For example, our previous Feb vacation trips included Lisbon, San Diego, Philadelphia, Tucson. OTOH flying in Feb out of Boston is always risky. We had a storm the day prior but luckily didn't affect our flight.

The past few years, as my son gets older and can go on longer hikes, we started visiting more national parks/ going on more active vacations. When it's time to plan a trip for Feb 2025, I decided on Death Valley. But a whole week is a bit too much for DV, so we split it in half and spent time in Boulder City NV near Lake Mead. About a month after I booked lodging for DV, they announced the dates for their annual Night Sky Festival 2025, which coincided with our vacation week, so I tweaked our reservations a bit to align with the dates.

Packing essentials
Hi-top hiking boots
Hiking poles
Insulated lunch bag + Freezer packs
Camelbak water bladder
Sunhats
UV tops
Dry bags & waterproof camera case (for kayaking)

Pre-booking:
Flights (3 months prior for best fare)
DV hotel (5 months prior for lowest rate - their "senior" discount starts at age 50!)
Boulder City Hotel (5 months prior for lowest rate)
LV airport hotel (6 weeks prior)
Rental car (the rates kept dropping as the dates get near; I must have cancelled and rebooked 3 times. The lowest rate I saw was 1 week prior to departure)
Guided kayaking on Colorado River (10 days prior)
Mine tour (a few days prior)
Lake Mead Cruise (forgot to book in advance and was sold out when I checked 3 days prior)

To be continued

Looking forward to this, yk!

Day 1 (Monday Presidents' Day) - looking for Gold

We got up at an ungodly hour and drove to Boston Logan for our 7am nonstop flight to LAS, arriving just after 10am Pacific Time.

LAS rental car situation is a disgrace. The garage is several miles away and even with nonstop shuttles, the line is super long. We waited for a 5th bus before it was our turn to get on. Between waiting for taxiing to the gate, deplaning, picking up checked luggage, waiting for rental car shuttle, rental car lines etc, it took 2 hours from touchdown to driving the car off the garage. (I reserved a small SUV which turned out to be a Buick Encore GX with 160 miles on the odometer)

Our plan for the afternoon is to visit Eldorado Canyon Mine down in Nelson, NV. Last year in AZ we visited a copper mine in Bisbee which was v cool, so I thought we should visit another mine. For Eldorado Canyon Mine, they ask you to call ahead for reservations. I had called a few days before and they took down my name for the 2pm tour, but I told them we were flying in the same day so I would call them back to confirm once we are on the ground. Anyway, I called them from the rental car garage to tell them we are coming.

We arrived just after 1pm and I had packed sandwiches all the way from home, because I wasn't sure we would have time to stop for lunch. This worked out great as the Mine has picnic tables outside. The family that owns the mine collects a ton of "stuff" so after lunch we had time to walk around the grounds to look at all the old stuff.

Eldorado mine, as its name suggests, was a gold and silver mine. The tour ($32.50 for 1 adult, 1 child) isn't as interesting as the Bisbee Copper mine, but we still enjoyed it nonetheless. After the tour, we drove 5 miles east to the "end of the road" where it deadends by the Colorado River, with Arizona on the opposite bank. Nice view.

Finally we drove back to Boulder City and checked into the Best Western in Boulder City. For dinner, we went to a sandwich shop called capriotti's which is in the same strip mall as Albertson's. My son had half a meatball sub and I had a salad ($18). After dinner we went to Albertsons for to-go sandwiches and fruits (groceries $30)

Eldorado Canyon mine

Eldorado Mine Canyon

Eldorado Canyon Mine

Eldorado Canyon Mine

At the end of Rt 165, overlooking the Colorado River with Arizona on the opposite bank

Day 2 (Tuesday) - Valley of Fire
Today is our long day to visit Valley of Fire State Park. We had free hotel breakfast on the dot at 7am. After packing our Albertson's to-go lunch in our lunch bag w/ freezer packs, we took the Lakeshore Road along Lake Mead then Rt 167 and entered via the East Entrance around 9:30am ($15 fee). The ranger said the crowd isn't too bad yet at this hour though the previous day (Presidents' Day) it was super busy.We drove past the visitors center to hit the White Domes trail first. (trail map) It's a fun 1.2-mile loop that takes you through a slot canyon. This is probably my favorite trail of the day. Next we drove to the Fire Wave trail parking area and hiked the Fire Wave / Seven Wonders Loop (2 miles). Afterwards we drove to the trailhead parking for Rainbow Vista trail. There are several picnic tables (no shade) where we ate our lunch.

Rainbow Vista trail is 2 miles out-and-back. All 3 trails are quite beautiful and we are struck by the red sandstone and the patterns of the rocks. My hiking poles came in handy on all 3 hikes as there is a lot of sand and elevation gain.

It was almost 2pm when we finished Rainbow Vista. We could have hiked more but we had enough. We stopped by the visitors center to look at the exhibits, then drove to the parking lot for Seven Sisters for a quick look before setting off back to Boulder City.

On the way back we stopped at the sunset view point at lake Mead along the lakeshore road. Too bad it wasn't sunset time yet. That night for dinner we walked across the street and ate at Southwest Diner. He had the taco dish and I got the garden salad. Dinner was $45.

Start of White Domes Trail in Valley of Fire

Slot canyon on White Domes Trail

Fire wave!

Amazing colors in the rock

At the end of Rainbow Vista trail

Fiery red rocks at Seven Sisters. Living up to its name 🔥 (no filter)

Sunset View Scenic Overlook at Lake Mead off Lakeshore Road

Great photos. I liked the chopped school bus. Good thing you are a great planner and can do a lot of things despite delays.

Day 3 (Wednesday) - the Colorado River
Our plan for today was spending time on the river: a half-day guided kayak tour to Emerald Cave, plus touring the Hoover Dam. The problem? The kayak tour is 10:15am- 2pm, where as Hoover Dam guided tour starts at 9:30am until 3:30pm but tickets can only bought in-person and are first-come-first-serve.

So I thought I was being clever by showing up at Hoover Dam at 9am, buy our tickets for the last tour of the day (3:30pm), go kayak, then return to Hoover Dam for the tour.

It worked but it was more complicated than I had expected. First, you have to pay $10 to park at Hoover Dam, and it's single entry. Second, you have go through security to even get to the ticketing desk. Third, they really do not expect people to do what we want to do: we are supposed to watch a movie and then go on the next tour, so the tour guides were not entirely thrilled when we told them we have to leave and come back later for the movie and our tour.

Anyway, we did get it done but I would not recommend this.

With tickets in hand, we drove down to Willow Beach in AZ, about 30 minutes south of Hoover dam, where we met our kayaking group (8people total). There are multiple outfitters that offer this. We used River Dogz (~ $200 for both) and we had an excellent guide.

The tour is 4 miles r/t, emerald cave is where we turnaround. There is also a small beach where we get off and take a short hike up to a viewpoint (and snack break).

This stretch of the Colorado River is in between 2 dams (Hoover and Davis), so the water is very calm. Water temp is constant year round at 55F. The kayaking is very easy. We had to wait a bit to get into emerald cave for the group photo. According to our guide, it gets super busy in the summer and it's a much longer wait.

We finished around 1:45pm and drove back to Hoover Dam, where I paid another $10 for parking and went through security again. The free dam exhibit is currently closed. We got in line to watch the movie and we had another 20 minutes to spare before our tour.

The first 30 minutes of the tour is a combined tour of both the "guided dam tour" (which we are on; $30pp no child discount) and the "power plant tour" (half the price and you can prebook online.) There were 2 stops. Then the power plant tour group leaves and our smaller Guided Dam group gets taken inside the dam for 2 more stops for another 30 minutes.

I'll admit the tour is not as exciting as we had expected, and $30pp feels a bit steep, plus the fact that we paid twice for parking. At the end of the tour you emerge from one of the towers of the Dam. We walked along for a bit and then drove to the bridge viewpoint where we walked on the new bridge for a birdseye view of the dam.

That night we walked a few blocks from our hotel over to Fox bbq and shared a BBQ plate ($45).

Kayaking on the Colorado River

Inside Emerald Cave

Corridor inside Hoover Dam; lots of Art Deco designs!

Looking at the new interstate bridge from top of the Dam

Looking at the Dam from the Interstate Bridge

Day 4 (Thursday)
Originally I was going to book us on the Lake Mead cruise (on a paddle steamer). The timing isn't the best (12-1:30pm) and it's quite pricey ($42pp age 12 and up). By the time I decided to book, it was full. So instead we spent the morning at the Lake Mead visitors center (part of NPS). My son picked up a junior ranger book, and I asked about the Historic Railroad trail which I had seen online. The VC has some exhibits and also an 8-min video about the Historic Railroad trail, well-worth watching before setting off on the hike. The trailhead is near the visitors center and is 5 miles out-and-back if you want to hike through all 5 tunnels. It was the actual railroad track for building the Hoover dam and the tunnels are enormous so the huge equipment could fit through. It's an easy hike, mostly flat, with nice views of the Lake, and the tunnels are pretty cool. You can continue to hike to Hoover Dam (2 more miles) but we turned back at the 5th tunnel. My son finished his junior ranger activity and received the badge.We then returned to the hotel to check out and enjoyed a leisurely lunch at Hangar 502, located right in center the historic district. I had a beet salad with chicken, my son had tomato soup and grilled cheese. Lunch was $30. Despite being in Boulder City for 3 days, today is our first time seeing the historic center in daylight and it's pretty cute.

After lunch we hit Albertsons to stock up on fruits and breakfast supplies for the next 3 days ($42 groceries), and the gas station before our drive to Death Valley via Pahrump. In Pahrump we stopped again to top off our gas tank as gas is cheaper than in Death Valley.

We were right on schedule and drove directly to Dante's View for sunset. We were a bit early so we took the short hike out on the ridge before returning to the main viewing area for sunset. At 5575', it gets pretty chilly up there!

From Dante's View, it's a good 45-min drive to Furnace Creek, where we checked in. I reserved the most basic type of double room, which is in the 2-story motel-style building (Building 700). At least we have the upper floor so we don't get footsteps above our heads, but that also means hauling our luggage up the stairs as I don't think the building has elevators. The building and the hallway looks rather drab, but the interior of the room is actually a lot nicer than I expected, for a lodging inside a National Park. Our dinner that night was leftovers from lunch. We wanted to go stargaze but too lazy to drive somewhere; and the hotel staff told us if we walk into the golf course at the back of the complex, it gets pretty dark there. So with our red light headlamps on, we ventured to the golf course.

We normally get our stargazing here in western Massachusetts in the summer when we go out for our annual vacation, however, Winter stargazing is rare for us due to the cold. So it's pretty cool for us to look at the winter sky and see different constellations. Furnace Creek does a very good job in terms of keeping lights dim, I really do think this is the darkest sky i've seen so far. There is an ice cream shop at Furnace Creek and we got a 2-scoop huckleberry ice cream to share (v good; $9.70)

Inside the historic tunnel

Gives you perspective on how massive the tunnels are

Lake Mead

Entering Death Valley National Park

Sunset from Dante's View, with bad water basin down below

Emerald Cave colors are stunning, yk. Has the water level risen any in Lake Mead? Cool silhouette shot!

Day 5 (Friday) - lots of hiking in DV!

The next few days in DV, we have our own little in-room breakfasts of yogurt parfait (Quaker granola + Siggi's yogurt + fresh fruits). Our room has a little balcony with 2 chairs, and it's nice morning to sit outside for our breakfasts.

Our first hike of the day is Golden Canyon. This hike has a number of options: we knew we wanted to at least hike to Red Cathedral, but whether we retraced our steps vs continue with the Gower Gulch loop would be determined by how we feel. I filled up the Camelbak water bladder, packed some snacks, and got my hiking poles, and off we started around 9am. The first section is pretty easy, but once we veered off toward Red Cathedral, it gets steeper followed by quite a bit of rock scrambling. When we got down, we decided we would continue on the Gower Gulch loop, making it a total of a 5-mile hike, and took 3 hours.

Since Golden Canyon trailhead is only a short distance from Furnace Creek, we returned to our room for lunch (a packaged sandwich we bought from the General Store the night before). We rested for about an hour in our room, then we walked over to the little Borax Museum that is within the Furnace Creek compound to learn about the history, before we drove over to Harmony Borax Works to see the leftover remains of the borax plant. It's really hard to imagine people working and living here over a century ago in such dry and hot conditions.

The rest of our afternoon was spent up and down Badwater Road: first was driving the Artists Palette Scenic Loop. This was around 3pm and we both felt a bit underwhelmed. Maybe the colors are more vibrant at a different time of day? This is followed by driving the unpaved road out to Devil's Golf course to see all the jagged salt formations. Finally we drove all the way down to Badwater Basin for sunset. At -282 feet, this is the lowest point in the US. The ground is all white; us being from New England, it looks just like snow, but in fact, it is all salt as far as the eyes can see. We walked way out into the salt flats, maybe 3/4 mile out. The farther you head out, the clearer you can see the polygon formations of the salt flat.

Since we had a light lunch, we "splurged" for the dinner buffet at the 1849 restaurant at Furnace Creek, as my son still qualifies for the child price ($46 total). We headed back to our room to get ready for tonight's Star Party as part of the Dark Sky Festival. Today is day 1 of the festival, and the 3-day festival features lots of talks, and guided walks, expo, as well as evening star party. Since we aren't astronomers, our main interest is looking at the dark sky at night. The Star Party was hosted at the Furnace Creek airport; where 30 volunteer astronomers set up their telescopes for visitors to view, plus ranger-guided constellation talk. It really shocked me by how many people showed up for it, and everyone seemed prepared as they all had red light headlamps and not a single person turned on their regular white flashlight.

My phone logged me has having walked 11.2 miles that day

Hiking through Golden Canyon towards Red Cathedral

Viewpoint from Red Cathedral

Rugged salt deposits at Devil's Golf Course

Sunset at Badwater Basin where you can see the salt formation

I am glad you took your son to DV. It is one of those places people ask us why we would ever go there. We find it fascinating and keep returning, trying to see a different area each time.

Thanks for reporting, and keep it coming.

Thank you for sharing your report and pictures! I am really enjoying.

Thank you for all your comments. DV is certainly a good choice for us!

So beautiful!!!

Does the Furnace Creek Hotel have a heated swimming pool? I always wanted go take a similar trip, without the hiking!!

Yes it does, it's outdoors heated at 85F and stays open until 11pm. We wanted to go for a dip but we were just too tired at the end of every day!

Thanks so much!!! That seals the deal for me--I need to begin thinking about a trip out West...maybe fly to Las Vegas and drive from there.
Your photos are so beautiful.

So to clarify, Furnace Creek Resort is now named THE RESORT AT DEATH VALLEY, and encompasses both the INN and the separate RANCH??
Do they both use the same pool?