When we visited Death Valley two years ago, we learned about how burros played a part in the history of the park. However, we never did see any burros.
We recently returned from a fabulous road trip that took us through Beatty, Nevada, on our way to the Washington state national parks. Our route north took us along the eastern side of Death Valley, and as we drove through the small town of Beatty, we notices a welcoming committee of burros!
We stopped to check them out and soon we were surrounded by several friendly wild burros! We didn’t stay long, and out of curiosity, I pulled up info online as we headed out of town. The town weblink: https://travelnevada.com/wildlife/beatty-burros/ explained in more detail about the sweet burros and included some friendly tips:
Feeding the burros or wildlife of any kind is not only extremely uncool, it’s also illegal. Human food is not healthy for wild animals, and they do not need food from humans to survive. Wild animals have specialized diets, and they can become malnourished or die if fed or become dependent on human food. The good news in Beatty is this: the burros are so used to people in the area they will naturally approach you for a good ol’ head scratch (and selfie!), even without the allure of snacks.
Ironically, I took a couple of selfies with the burros! However, we did wonder exactly what they wanted from us.
When we came back through, a couple of weeks later, once again we looked for, and found, some friendly burros. And true to the tips above, all they wanted was some hugs and love! One of my favorite moments of the trip!
We also noticed, as we approached the town from the north, dozens of burros in the open areas not far from the highway. It appeared to provide a water source for them.
Also noteworthy, I see the Beatty webpage indicates that the burros have been removed from Death Valley. When we visited I believe they were still there. Although as I do some further web searches, I can’t confirm that all the burros were removed. The Death Valley park page still indicates there are burros in Death Valley.
If you ever find yourself in Beatty, NV, make sure to stop and hug some burros!
First visit, once we stopped the car, over they came!
Friendliest burros ever!
When we came back through we saw some on a side street, by a park. We stopped the car and they headed over to greet us!
We noticed the park had fencing all around. 😉 Poor burros!
It was hard to leave!
peace of life today 
Aww, they are so cute! I’d like to have seen them too.
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They were adorable! And at first we didn’t know what they were going to do. But it appeared they would have just let us pet them and hug them as long as we wanted to!!
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So cute!
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They were! I loved hugging them 😊
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So friendly
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They were!
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I would so love to go visit these sweet burrows. I love it that you made a blog for them.
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Thank you! Too cute to pass up!
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Fascinating! We stopped in Beatty on our way out of Death Valley last October and didn’t see a single burro 😦
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When we came back down, we had to drive around a couple of blocks, but then we saw several. I really wanted to find some in Death Valley but didn’t. However, we were told by a ranger that they were still in the park.
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We probably didn’t drive around enough!
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Too bad you missed them. So worth the time to stop for a burro hug!
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How cute, Lisa! I would have liked to see them.☺️
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Thank you! I was so surprised! I’m so glad we stopped to visit them! 😊
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I’m happy you found your burros. That little town north of Beatty is full of them. On the othe side of Death Valley is the old mining town of Darwin; its full of burros.
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It seems odd that we didn’t see any inside of Death Valley. But we did see a LOT of them just north of Beatty!
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I’ve never seen them in Death Valley proper myself. It may be its easier to find food around human populations.
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The burros are adorable. So glad you finally found them. 😊
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Thank you! Me too! 😊
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