West Side Road

Westside Road was heavily damaged due to a storm and flooding in 2023.

NPS/A. Wines

West Side Road in Death Valley National Park fully reopened on 1/31/2025. West Side Road could not be repaired last winter while ‘Lake Manly’, a temporary shallow lake, soaked the ground.

August 20, 2023 was the rainiest day in Death Valley National Park’s history. The remnants of Hurricane Hilary caused flash floods that closed the entire park for 56 days and damaged over 1,000 miles of park roads.

A section of West Side Road washed away during the flood. About two miles of the road were left too soggy and unstable for heavy equipment to work on. The ground dried and solidified over the summer, allowing repair work to commence in the fall.

Contractors recently rebuilt the elevated earthen berm under the road and installed culverts. Most of this work was funded by Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads (ERFO) program. Extra culverts to make the road more resilient to future floods were funded by the National Park Service’s Disaster Supplemental funding.

West Side Road provides access to 4x4 roads and cross-country hiking in the Panamint Mountains.