The drive to Death Valley from our home is a little over 5 hours. With a few detours, and a quick trip up to Mesquite Springs Campground (which was a bit too chilly), we ended up at Texas Spring Campground for our first night of camping. This campground has 2 loops. The first one was unfortunately already quite full for our first night and is for tents only. So we ended up in the back loop which is basically a parking lot with rows of gravel between paved roads. Each site has a picnic table and fire pit. Since most of our camping so far has been in Joshua Tree, we have been spoiled by big rocks, foliage, and Joshua Trees surrounding us at our campsites. Comparatively, this one was a little bit of a let down. Luckily, we always bring a big tarp with us which helped protect our tent from the hard gravel surface. Our heavy duty stakes barely managed to get through the rock like ground. We secured what we couldn't stake with some big rocks.

Since it was the beginning of December, we didn't have many neighbors for our first night. After the sun set and we were enjoying the campfire, we were circled by a lone coyote up on the ridgeline that howled for over an hour. His shiny little eyes reflected back from a flashlight and let us know that he was watching over us.

After a good nights rest, we had some excellent camp coffee, basked in the sun rising over the ridges and packed up our campsite. It was time to go explore Death Valley, and hopefully, secure a better site for our next night of camping.