Two hundred and twenty-four ranch-style rooms and cottages spread across a working retreat on the floor of Death Valley, with the family-friendly counterpart to the Inn upstairs and the most complete resort programme in the National Park.
"The 224-room family resort below the Inn, the only retreat at Death Valley address that brings a horse stable, a saloon, a borax wagon, and the lowest-elevation golf course on earth inside one walking-distance compound."
The Ranch at Death Valley opened in 1933 as the Furnace Creek Ranch, originally housing for the borax mining operations and the staff who ran the Inn upstairs. The 2018 restoration that reset the Inn also added 80 new cottages here and rebranded the property as the Ranch at Death Valley, the family-pitched second resort in the retreat at Death Valley pair. The compound sits a six-minute walk down the hill from the Inn and reads as a small town in its own right: a Town Square with a general store, a post office substation, a borax museum, a saloon, two restaurants, a buffet, the lowest-elevation 18-hole golf course on earth, and the only horse stables operating inside any of the southwest's National Parks.
The 224 rooms split between the original ranch buildings and the 2018 cottage additions. Standard rooms in the older blocks run around 320 square feet with two queens or a king and a private patio; the deluxe rooms adjacent to the pool are slightly larger and add a small living area; the new cottages are roughly 400 square feet and sleep four comfortably, with the king-bed plus sleeper-sofa configuration that family travelers actually use. The finish brief is intentionally less expensive than the Inn (laminate floors rather than tile, simpler linens, basic shower-only bathrooms in the standard categories) and the price gap is the main reason families choose the Ranch over the Inn for a five-night stay.
The food offer is broader and looser than at the Inn. The Last Kind Words Saloon is the only proper bar inside the National Park, a low-ceilinged room with a long mahogany counter, a small stage, and the only kitchen open until 10 PM during the high season; the Forty Niner Cafe handles family breakfast and lunch with a counter and booth service; the Ranch 1849 Buffet does a serviceable hot dinner on the busier weeks. The general store carries a respectable wine selection, the gas pumps are the only ones inside the Park, and the entire compound runs on a single 24-hour rhythm that is friendlier and more porous than the Inn's quieter cadence.
Programming is the Ranch's real distinguishing feature. The Furnace Creek Stables run beginner trail rides starting at age six between October and May; the Furnace Creek Golf Course, at 214 feet below sea level, is by definition the lowest 18 holes on earth and runs a USD 70 weekday rate with cart; the Borax Museum on the property covers the mining history that built the place and runs short ranger talks twice a day in season. The spring-fed swimming pool (a separate 87 F pool from the Inn's, slightly larger) is open until 10 PM and is the natural gathering point at dusk. The Ranch is not the Inn and it is not trying to be; it is the broadest, most operationally complete National Park lodging in the western United States.
The Ranch is the simplest family booking inside the National Park. The 80 cottages added in 2018 sleep four comfortably (one king plus a sleeper sofa or two queens) and sit a flat one-minute walk from the pool, the playground, and Town Square. The stables run beginner trail rides for ages six and up between October and May, and the golf course will rent a half-set and a pull cart to kids who want to play three holes. Book a cottage in Section C for the shortest pool walk and the least road noise.
For a solo trip the Ranch reads as a more sociable answer than the Inn. Standard rooms run a third of the casita price, the saloon is the only proper bar in the National Park (a single solo traveler on a Tuesday night will end the evening in conversation with rangers, geologists, or the borax wagon driver), and the buffet handles single diners without ceremony. Pair three nights here with a morning at Badwater Basin and an afternoon up Dante's View and the desert opens up cleanly.
Highway 190
Furnace Creek, CA 92328
United States
Inside Death Valley National Park; a 6 minute walk down the hill from the Inn at Death Valley
224 rooms across the resort
80 new cottages (added 2018)
Standard Rooms from USD 150/night
Deluxe Rooms from USD 220/night
Cottages from USD 280/night
Family Suites to USD 450/night
Check-in: 4:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Opened 1933 as Furnace Creek Ranch
Renovated and rebranded 2018
Member of the retreat at Death Valley
Spring-fed swimming pool kept at 87 F year round
Furnace Creek Golf Course (the lowest 18 holes on earth, 214 feet below sea level)
Furnace Creek Stables (horseback rides October through May)
The Last Kind Words Saloon, the Forty Niner Cafe, the Ranch 1849 Buffet
Borax Museum on property
General store and gas station
Complimentary WiFi in public areas
From USD 150 / night. Death Valley peak runs late February through mid-April and again in October and November; book three to four months ahead for those weeks and one to two months ahead for the summer shoulder.
See Current Rates →The 1927 mission-style luxury inn on the hill above the Ranch, the only four-diamond address inside the Park.
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New openings, special offers, and the week’s best value suites. One email a week, no noise.