The Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes (near Stovepipe Wells) are the most visited and my least favorite sand dunes in the park. Everyone comes here who is visiting Death Valley for a few days, especially those who are just getting to know the park. As a result, it's often crowded on both the hike out to the highest peak and while on the peaks. Don't get me wrong, the Mesquite Flat dunes are beautiful, it's just that I prefer any of the other five main sand dunes in the park-- Panamint, Eureka, Ibex, Saline Valley, or Hidden.. At the other dune fields you'll find more peace and quiet, very few or no people at all, very few or no human walking tracks at all, and more interesting scenery. To see what I'm talking about, just look at the pictures down below with the idea of seeing how many human footprints you can see in the pictures. Now compare that with the pictures on the other sand dunes web pages on this site. Even so, I've hiked the Mesquite Flat dunes many, many times over the years. The first set of pictures down below were taken on a hike that I did in March of 2011. In the pictures, you will see why the Mesquite Flat Dunes are an excellent place to take children and first-time visitors to Death Valley. In the second set of pictures, you will see some classic pictures of my friends and family hiking out to these dunes.
The next set of pictures are all classic pictures that we took in the late 90's and early 2000's. This one shows Dave and Alisha walking out with the old parking area along the road behind them:
This ridge has been walked on quite a bit today, as evidenced by the footprints:
John Leidel has hiked these dunes quite a few times over the years:
In the foreground, that's Anthony, Robert, Josh, and Tiffany:
The wind is blowing through in this photo:
We have had a lot of fun times here:
A great picture of Lowell sleeping on the dunes:
Annie posing for a photo after a tiring hike:
Steve getting his photo taken:
Yes, that really is Geo, Crissy, and Chad on the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes:
The final two pictures show Daria during her first ever trip to Death Valley in the spring of 2008:
A brand new parking area and set of interpretive signs were installed for the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in 2010. Here is the main new sign:
One of the new signs features a snake out on the Mesquite Dunes. Yes, we have come across snakes while hiking out there in the past:
Heading out the beginning path on our hike to the highest sand peak in March 2011:
The new parking lot is off the road and safer. It has an excellent design and was nicely done:
On our hike, we found it virtually impossible to avoid getting either tourists or evidence of tourists in our pictures:
A young couple hiking back from visiting the Mesquite Dunes:
A group of tourists taking a picture with Death Valley Buttes in the background:
The heavy amount of foot traffic these dunes receive guarantee that footprints will litter any pictures that you take:
You will frequently pass designs and names drawn into the sand by children:
A youngster running through the sand to catch up with her family:
The tracks are lesser in extent the further you get out into the dunes:
Jeremy plotting a path in between the tracks of two previous hikers:
A couple taking pictures with the parking lot in the background:
A tourist following the ridge of sand which was one over from where we were hiking:
In the next two pictures, a random tourist who was hiking caught up to us and hiked with us for a while:
A couple resting on top of the mountain of sand. Perhaps they will take the quick way down later by sliding off the edge:
Following more tracks as we headed towards the highest sand peak:
The closest we could get to seeing pure untouched sand on our journey:
Even less evidence of people, as there were only two sets of tracks visible heading for the main summit:
In the next two pictures, you can see how the main ridge heading for the summit has been trampled down by tourists. This is a standard feature of hiking out to the summit of the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. Other dune systems in the park don't usually have this issue, which detracts from the natural beauty and destroys pictures:
The only picture I got on our hike which had no evidence of tourists. To get it, I had to zoom in on a small portion of sand patterns:
In the next two pictures, we passed by one final tourist before reaching the summit:
Jeremy and Jordan on the final path to the summit:
View from the summit of the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes looking to the east:
Looking south towards the northeastern edge of Tucki Mountain:
And one more view looking back towards the parking area and the sand hills we traversed:
Steve on the MFSD highest peak for the first time in like 8 years:
In the next three pictures, we wanted to show you some of the designs that children had made in the sand during our visit. The first picture shows Jordan inside a smiley face:
The second picture shows Steve inside a heart design:
And the third picture shows Jeremy inside a peace sign:
Here some children made a message for their mom in the sand:
And in our final picture from our March 2011 hike, we show you an interesting fort replica that some children had made from sand and twigs: