Overview

The 1.5-mile Ubehebe Crater Loop Trail runs around the perimeter of Ubehebe Crater, a geologically interesting area in the Death Valley Wilderness Area. The crater was formed when this area was volcanically active. Magma was moving towards the surface, and it might have erupted and formed a volcano or a cinder cone, but it encountered groundwater along the way. The hot magma superheated the groundwater, converted it to steam, and blew a giant hole (0.5 miles across) and several smaller holes in the ground. Even if you don't hike the trail, just seeing this place and imagining what it would have been like to see the blast is worth driving over here from the main road. The hike is fairly easy and provides great views of the crater and surrounding area.

Link to map.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, ...this is a fairly safe hike, but the sides of the crater are steep and loose, and a slip from the trail could make for a long slide into the crater. Some parts of the trail might not be good for small children unless you watch them carefully. Going the first half-mile to Little Hebe Crater is pretty safe, but stay back from the edge.

While hiking, please respect the land and the other people out there, and please try to Leave No Trace of your passage. Also, this hike is fairly short, so just bring what you need of the 10 Essentials.

Getting to the Trailhead

This hike is located in Death Valley National Park, about 4 hours northwest of Las Vegas.

From town, drive out to Death Valley. From the Furnace Creek Visitor Center (Table 1, Site 0712), drive north on Highway 190 for 17.4 miles to Scotty's Castle Road (Site 0763). Turn right onto Scotty's Castle Road and drive north for about 33 miles to the Grapevine Entrance Station, which is a tollbooth in the middle of the road (with water and restrooms at the nearby ranger station). Continue north for 0.2 miles to Ubehebe Crater Road (Site 0754). Turn left (west) onto Ubehebe Crater Road and drive northwest for 6.0 miles to the parking area at Ubehebe Overlook (Site 0755). Stop here; this is the trailhead.

The Hike

From the trailhead (Table 2, Waypoint 05), hikers can walk the Ubehebe Crater Loop Trail in either direction, but I walked it by starting to the southwest (right) heading up the hill. Going this way, there are great views from high on this side of the crater and the desert valleys beyond. Despite the loose volcanic soils, the walking is fairly easy.

The Ubehebe Crater Loop Trail runs out about 0.5 miles to a little hilltop (Wpt. 06), then descends slightly to a trail junction (Wpt. 07) with a short spur trail (about 2 minutes) leads to Little Hebe Crater (Wpt. 08), a smaller crater perched on the back of "Big Ubehebe." For details on the hike up to this point, see the Little Hebe Trail.

From the Little Hebe trail junction (Wpt. 07), the Ubehebe Crater Loop Trail continues up and around the main crater, shortly arriving at the highest point on the trail (Wpt. 09), which ironically has a great view of Little Hebe and a poor view of the main crater.

From there, the Ubehebe Crater Loop Trail continues circling eastward (Wpt. 10) and then northward around the crater. Some parts of the trail run inside the rim of the crater, which gives great views of the bottom, but also carries the risk of giving hikers a quick ride to the bottom.

From the far side, the Ubehebe Crater Loop Trail provides some great views to the north and east out across the region, and there are great views down into the crater. In the crater, hikers can see rocks and sediments of various colors, including black and white banding, red cliffs, and what looks like white sediment from the bottom of the crater that was blasted up onto the side of the crater. Visitors can see these from the trailhead too, but somehow views from the far side seem better.

The Ubehebe Crater Loop Trail continues around the crater until returning to the trailhead.

In addition to hiking around the crater, there are several trails down into Ubehebe Crater. These trails are steep and loose, and while the direct route down from the parking area might be a good way to get down, getting up that way looks pretty hard. One person, who was having trouble climbing back up that steep route, ended up crawling much of the way out. An alternative and less steep route out of the crater runs to the east (right on the way out) of the direct route (hits the rim at Wpt. 11). Hikers should take a look at this route before going down, so they know an easier way to climb back out.