Location:

Central California on the Nevada border, 120 miles west of Las Vegas.

Vital Stats:

Nearest airports: Las Vegas McCarran National Airport (120 miles from Furnace Creek).

Established: October 31, 1994.

Size: 3.4 million acres, making it the largest national park in the lower 48 states.

Park website: http://www.nps.gov/deva/

Snapshot

The ultimate showcase of American deserts, Death Valley is all about extremes: It's the hottest, driest, and lowest place in North America, encompassing landscapes ranging from a vast salt pan to 100-foot-high dunes, multicolored canyons, volcanic craters, and even snow-capped mountains. Most of Earth's geological eras are on display here, along with many plant and animal species that occur nowhere else in the world. The park includes all of Death Valley, a 156-mile-long north-to-south-trending trough that formed between two major mountain ranges: the Amargosa Range to the east and the Panamint Range to the west.

Did You Know?

The highest mountain in the park, 11,049-foot Telescope Peak, lies only 15 miles from Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the U.S. The vertical drop from the peak to Badwater Basin is twice the depth of the Grand Canyon.

Named by gold prospectors struggling through the area in 1849, Death Valley has been inhabited by Timbisha Shoshone Native Americans; gold prospectors, including slaves; Chinese immigrants mining for silver and borax; Basque immigrants who settled here at the turn of the 20th century; and Japanese Americans temporarily interned here during World War II.

Scenic Drives

Badwater Road is the most popular drive in the park. Along it lie Devil's Golf Course, a big salt pan marked by jagged salt-crystals that caused a writer to remark that only the devil could play golf there, and Badwater, a salty pool close to the lowest point in the park—and in North America. For the return trip to Highway 190, follow nine-mile Artist's Drive, which takes in eons-old volcanic ashfalls colored in blues, greens, and reds thanks to weathering and oxidation. http://www.nps.gov/deva/faqs.htm

Another popular drive is Twenty Mule Team Canyon, a 2.7-mile loop winding through otherworldly badlands. Though unpaved, it is accessible to standard vehicles.