Energized after our morning climb up Striped Butte, we'd pretty much wrapped up everything I'd planned for our three days in Butte Valley. Still, a big part of a visit to this Shangri-La is the 4wd route through Mengel Pass and Goler Wash - both of which had been heavily impacted by storms in late 2025 - so exiting out to Panamint Valley would give us a chance to check out the road conditions as well as a couple other attractions that I was curious about along the way. Goodbye, Striped Butte, you were as mesmerizing as always! Making it…
10 CommentsTag: Three Days in Butte-iful Valley (Apr 2026)
Good morning, Striped Butte. Unlike the previous morning - where I'd been so excited to be in Butte Valley that I'd woken up nearly an hour before sunrise - I was able to sleep in a little later on our second morning. But not much. The reason was right out the tent window. There was - so to speak - an elephant in the valley. An elephant known as Striped Butte. For all my love of this place, we'd never climbed its imposing slopes, and I knew that if we didn't climb them today, it could be years before we'd…
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I was so excited to be camped in my favorite spot in all of Death Valley National Park - with an amazing view of Striped Butte - that I was ready to go even before our alarm went off in the morning. Is it time yet? Knowing that I wouldn't be able to fall back asleep, I wiggled my way out of bed and down the ladder to grab my phone and a battery pack that I could use to set up a timelapse of sunrise in this special place. Good morning, Striped Butte. Like the feeling of relief that…
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We were parked on the alluvial fan of Warm Springs Canyon, which is a fancy way of saying we'd voluntarily set up camp at the mouth of a wind tunnel. A tunnel that - not long after we got settled in bed - was, predictably, performing flawlessly. Luckily, we'd oriented the tent in such a way that we were in no danger of it folding up with us inside, so after closing the door flap - to prevent direct hits from the oncoming blasts - we were rocked to sleep through the remainder of the night. We'd both wish we'd…
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Ever since our very first trip to Death Valley - when we passed through Butte Valley for a single night - I've loved this little pocket of paradise in the Panamint Mountains. While many seem to take joy in the cabins sprinkled around its perimeter, the highlight - for me - has always been a pile of granite boulders with the most fabulous view of Striped Butte. I am not the first to enjoy this place; it has certainly been a resting point for thousands of years. Still, I've never spent more than a few daylight hours in this wonderful…
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