Day 3, Noon
With a spare tire that I put the day before I could not get far, since it was not regular size. I needed to fix that problem first. The closest town – Big Pine – was over an hour away, especially with spare tire with a limit of 50 mph.
The drive to Big Pine turned out pretty interesting and picturesque. From there I decided to drive along Sierra Nevada mountain range south and re-enter Death Valley from west. That way I would have entered the valley from every road available.
The road was very nice. If I were to go to Eureka Dunes again that’s probably the way I would approach it. And for convenience I could even stay in Big Pine for a night.
The drive to Big Pine and then driving west of Death Valley turned out very picturesque. Here is a road from Eureka Dunes with snowy Sierra Nevada in the distance:
Here is a nice roller-coaster ride to the west entrance to Death Valley with mountains in the distance hidden behind dust storm:
And here are the curves of road descending into Death Valley with its colorful mountains (click on the image to see it larger):
vitali prokopenko | fine art 
Unfortunately if you want to get to Eureka Dune from inside Death Valley (from Scotty’s Castle) it would take you through another dirt/rocky road that is much worse than the paved section from Big Pine. And you finally get to the same 10 mile stretch before the dune that is so bad on tires. Second option is to go through Saline Valley but then you need an ATV not to get stuck in deep sand. And yes sunsets above the Eureka Valley are amazing at times.
I agree. The easiest route is from Big Pine.