The largest national park south of Alaska, Death Valley is known for extremes: It is North America's driest and hottest spot (with fewer than 2 inches of rainfall annually and a record high of 134°F), and has the lowest elevation on the continent—282 feet below sea level. Even with its extremes, the park still receives nearly a million visitors each year.
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In 1849 emigrants bound for California's gold fields strayed into the 120-mile-long basin, enduring a two-month ordeal of "hunger and thirst and an awful silence." One of the last to leave looked down from a mountain at the narrow valley and said, "Good-bye, Death Valley."
The forbidding moniker belies the beauty in this vast graben, the geological term for a sunken fragment of the Earth's crust. Here are rocks sculptured by erosion, richly tinted mudstone hills and canyons, luminous sand dunes, lush oases, and a 200-square-mile salt pan surrounded by mountains, one of America's greatest vertical rises. In some years spring rains trigger wildflower blooms amid more than a thousand varieties of plants.
Native Americans, most recently the Shoshone, found ways to adapt to the more recent and forbidding desert conditions that exist here now. Rock art and artifacts indicate a human presence dating back at least 9,000 years.
From 1883 to 1889, wagon teams hauled powdery white borax from mines since fallen to ruin, an enterprise that spread word of Death Valley's striking landscapes, deep solitude, and crystalline air.
As night falls, Death Valley's elusive populations of bobcats, kit foxes, and rodents venture out. Far above on steep mountain slopes, desert bighorn sheep forage among Joshua trees, scrubby junipers, and pines, while hawks soar on thermals rising into vivid blue, cloudless skies.
How to Get There
No public transit services serve the park. Most visitors arrive by automobile from Los Angeles, California, or Las Vegas, Nevada.
From Los Angeles, the most scenic route crosses the eastern Mojave Desert via I-15 through Barstow. At Baker it turns north onto Calif. 127 to Shoshone, where Calif. 178 runs west and north along the valley floor to Furnace Creek.
From Las Vegas, take Nev. 160 west 42 miles to Old Spanish Trail (Tecopa Rd.), continuing through Tecopa to Calif. 127, turning north to Shoshone and picking up Calif. 178 to Furnace Creek. To include a visit to the early-20th-century Nevada goldmining ghost town of Rhyolite, take US 95 to Beatty, picking up Nev. 374, which becomes Calif. 190 and leads west to the park.
When to Go
All-year park. Temperatures from November through February average between 25°F and 75°F. From May through September, average highs range between 100°F and 116°F; overnight lows may top 100°F.
How to Visit
Death Valley's remote location and size make an automobile essential. An overnight stay allows time for the valley's vivid sunrises and sunsets, and a visit to the Death Valley Museum and Furnace Creek Visitor Center. Plan also to visit the Harmony Borax Works near the Furnace Creek Campground, to walk the 1-mile Golden Canyon Interpretive Trail, and to drive to Zabriskie Point for fine views of the valley.
A second day permits exploration of the valley's northern reaches and Scottys Castle, the retreat of an early-20th-century millionaire, and nearby Ubehebe Crater, blasted out during the region's volcanic past. If you are a seasoned hiker, consider the strenuous all-day hike from Wildrose Canyon to sweeping views atop 11,049-foot Telescope Peak, Death Valley's highest point.
