Saline Valley hot springs. Forty miles of dirt to a warm bath.

The Saline Valley hot springs have been important to the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe since time immemorial. Recreational users started building soaking tubs and art there in the 1950s. The Bureau of Land Management ran the site until the California Desert Protection Act moved it into Death Valley in 1994. A management plan took effect in June 2019.

Lower Spring

Soaking tubs that stay in use, in their historic form, under the 2019 plan. The Lower Spring area is closed after the fire; see below.

Palm Spring

More soaking tubs, also kept in their historic form. The Palm Spring section of the campground did not burn.

Upper Spring

Undeveloped. Under the plan it goes back to its natural condition, and the nonnative plants, palms included, come out.

House rules

• The springs are clothing-optional. Public nudity is not against federal rules; lewd behavior is.
• No camping within 100 feet of the source springs.
• Art in place by January 1, 2019 stays. New art must be temporary, must not disturb anything natural or cultural, and leaves with you.
• Pilots use the Chicken Strip, an airstrip in use for decades, under its own special regulation.

Around 7 p.m. on September 15, 2026, a fire burned through the Lower Spring area. Nobody was hurt, and everyone got out. The fuel was the skirts of dead fronds on about 80 nonnative palms; most of them burned, and some are likely to survive.

The volunteer camp host’s site was destroyed, including a shed that is a potential source of hazardous materials. Death Valley’s first look found the pipes to and from the Lower Spring pools melted. The soaking tubs appear undamaged. The U.S. Wildland Fire Service is investigating the cause.

• Closed: the burned area at Lower Spring, by order of the superintendent. Death Valley’s September 28 conditions list has the Lower pools closed.
• Open since September 17: the camping area around Palm Spring, and between Lower Spring and Palm Spring.
• Roadwork: Inyo County is grading the North Pass route, which helps haul out the debris.

Saline Valley Road is a county-maintained dirt road with two ends, and each one crosses a pass. The springs sit far below, at 1,375 feet.

South Pass, from Highway 190

High-clearance. The first 8 miles, from Highway 190 to Lee Flat, are surfaced but badly potholed. From South Pass, at 5,997 feet, through Grapevine Canyon, expect rocks, ruts and heavy washboard. Rockfall and washouts close it now and then. Lee Flat has some of the healthiest Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert.

North Pass, from Big Pine Road

High-clearance, with heavy washboard. Washouts are common when it rains. The pass tops 7,000 feet, and rockfall, snow and ice close it now and then.

Warm Springs Road

The spur to the springs. High-clearance for its sandy stretches and uneven surface. Heavy rain can make it impassable.

Lippincott Road

The steep way up toward the Racetrack Playa. Rough 4WD: very steep, exposed and winding, with washouts at the cliff edge. Uphill traffic has the right of way. Experienced 4WD drivers only.

From Lone Pine

As the crow flies, the springs are about 22 miles northeast of Lone Pine. By road, you go around by South Pass or North Pass.

Inyo County’s road report of August 11, 2026 lists North Saline Valley Road and South Saline Valley Road open. Hunter Mountain Road is closed: mud has made it impassable. Death Valley’s September 28 list also has Hunter Mountain Road closed for mud. Road closures in Death Valley apply to every motorized vehicle, motorcycles included.

Recreation.gov notes the campground may be out of reach in winter, when the passes ice up.

High clearance, defined

Death Valley’s definition: at least 8 inches between the lowest point of the undercarriage and the ground, on rims of 15 inches or more. High-clearance 4WD adds a way to drive both axles and a low-range transfer case. A car, sedan or RV with less than 8 inches is low clearance, fit only for pavement and low-clearance dirt roads.

Tires and spares

• Death Valley’s rule of thumb for backcountry roads: two full-size spare tires, plus extra food and water.
• Run off-road tires, not highway tires. Carry a plug kit or a can of fix-a-flat, a 12-volt air compressor, a lug wrench and every part of the jack.
• Towing from a dirt road often runs over $2,000, and AAA often won’t cover it.
• Rental agreements often ban driving off pavement, and rentals often come without a full-size spare.
• Most backcountry junctions are unmarked, and most of the backcountry has no cell service.

Past Eureka Dunes, South Eureka Valley Road turns into Steel Pass Road, the rough 4WD route between Eureka Valley and Saline Valley.

• Sustained technical sections, with narrow, steep bedrock steps that need careful wheel placement.
• Easier traveled north to south.
• Experienced 4WD drivers only.
• One of the most remote corners of Death Valley, with Joshua trees, big views and a lot of quiet.

The Eureka Dunes are the tallest sand dunes in California. They rise more than 680 feet above the dry lakebed at their western base, in an enclosed basin at about 3,000 feet, yet the whole field is only 3 miles long and 1 mile wide. When the sand is bone dry, an avalanche down the steepest face can make a low hum, like a pipe organ or a far-off airplane.

Five beetles and three plants live here and nowhere else. Sandboarding is not allowed, camping on the dunes is not allowed, and no vehicle goes on the sand.

Eureka Dunes Campground

A primitive campground at 2,880 feet, high-clearance only, with a vault toilet. Bring your own water and pack out your trash. Camp away from the base of the dunes, where most of the rare plants and animals live.

Getting there

Big Pine–Death Valley Road runs through Eureka Valley: high-clearance, dusty and full of big drainage dips, and paved for its final stretch west to Highway 168. South Eureka Valley Road is the county road to the dunes, also high-clearance, with heavy washboard and deep sand near the dunes. Inyo County’s August 11, 2026 report lists Death Valley Road and North Eureka Valley Road open.

Eureka Dunes weather

The dunes sit about 3,000 feet higher than Furnace Creek. Death Valley loses 3 to 5°F for every thousand feet you climb, so figure roughly 10 to 15 degrees cooler than the valley floor. More in Death Valley weather by month.

Yes, if the bike is street legal. Death Valley allows dual sport motorcycles on paved and dirt roads as long as they are registered and street legal under California law, and every rider needs a license.

• Every road in Death Valley, paved or dirt, counts as a highway under the California Vehicle Code. Off-highway vehicles are banned from all of them: dirt bikes, motocross bikes, ATVs and side-by-sides.
• Green-sticker, off-road-registered bikes cannot be ridden in Death Valley.
• No riding off the road, anywhere. Fines run up to $5,000, or six months in jail.
• Most backcountry dirt roads have wilderness starting 50 feet from the centerline, and wilderness is foot or horseback only.
• The entrance fee for motorcycles is $25 and covers up to two bikes for seven days.

More on riding this country in Death Valley motorcycle routes.

Saline Valley Warm Springs has a primitive campground. Since the fire, the area around Palm Spring and between Lower Spring and Palm Spring is open; Lower Spring is closed.

• Primitive campgrounds have no water. Bring your own and pack out all your trash.
• Roadside camping is allowed elsewhere along dirt roads, at least one mile from any paved road or day-use-only dirt road. It is not allowed on the Eureka Dunes.
• Backcountry campsites must be more than 100 yards from any water source.
• Groups top out at 12 people and 4 vehicles.
• Campfires only in a provided fire ring or your own fire pan. Pack out the ash, and no gathering wood.
• At Eureka Dunes and Saline Warm Springs, expect low-level fly-overs by military jets.

In 1903 and 1904, salt left Saline Valley by wagon over the Inyo Range by way of Waucoba Canyon: a two-day trip to cover 12 miles. A railroad was impractical, so the Saline Valley Salt Company chose an aerial tramway, which could haul supplies in as well as salt out. Construction started in 1911.

• Length: 13½ miles, from Saline Valley to the Owens Valley.
• Climb: from 1,100 feet at the east terminal to 8,500 feet at the crest of the Inyo Range, then down to 3,600 feet at the west end.
• Claim to fame: steeper grades than any other tramway in the United States.
• Output: tens of thousands of tons of salt between 1912 and 1918.
• The end: the plant last ran in 1930, and the last salt company went into receivership in 1935.

Building it broke the original company. When the tram was nominated to the National Register in 1973, many towers still stood, some with steel buckets hanging from the cables over deep canyons.

The springs sit at 1,375 feet, about 1,570 feet above Furnace Creek. At Death Valley’s 3 to 5°F per thousand feet, that works out to roughly 5 to 8 degrees of relief, against a Furnace Creek July that averages 117°F. The passes run above 5,900 and 7,000 feet, and they can be impassable in winter.

In summer, Death Valley recommends staying in developed campgrounds only: unpaved roads raise the risk of breakdowns, exposure and no water. Month-by-month numbers are in Death Valley weather by month.