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: 3,373,042 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.
Best Hikes
Golden Canyon Trail is a moderate, two-mile round-trip interpretive hike through a colorful canyon.
Badwater Salt Flats is an easy to moderate hike onto a surreal landscape of white salt flats 282 feet below sea level. Avoid this trail in the summer because of extreme high temperatures.
Salt Creek trail features a wooden boardwalk along a small stream, where in spring you may spot rare pupfish. Wheelchair accessible.
Natural Bridge Canyon is an easy half-mile hike to a massive rock span.
Dante's Ridge is a moderate eight-mile round-trip hike past Dante's View, which offers expansive vistas across Death Valley to Telescope Peak. Also visible: Badwater Basin, more than a mile below the ridge. Hike this trail in the early morning with the sun at your back for more dramatic photos.
Top Experiences
In the Furnace Creek area of the park, the panoramas from Zabriskie Point and Dante's View are justifiably famous.
The Scotty's Castle area is known for "the Racetrack," where boulders that mysteriously traverse the dry lake bed leave behind long trails. Also in this area is Death Valley Ranch, better know as Scotty's Castle, a Spanish-style home that appears mirage-like in Grapevine Canyon. Worth taking: a Living History or Underground Mystery Tour of the ranch.
In the Stovepipe Wells area, check out a ghost town, Indian petroglyphs, bighorn sheep, and multicolored volcanic deposits in Titus Canyon. http://www.nps.gov/deva/faqs.htm
Flora/Fauna
Thanks to the range of elevations contained within the park (from 282 feet below sea level to 11,049 above), it's home to a diverse roster of some 50 mammal species, 307 bird species, and 36 reptile species. You'll likely see roadrunners, ground squirrels, and lizards while visiting the park. If you're lucky, you may spot desert bighorns at higher elevations. In spring, the pupfish, the only landlocked fish found in the U.S., can be viewed along an earthquake fault at Salt Creek, the smallest habitat for a vertebrate animal in the world.
Upending many visitors' expectations that the park is a lifeless wasteland are the 1,000 species of plants that grow here, 50 of which are endemic to the park. Mainstays include cacti, yuccas, and other succulents; creosote brush, desert holly, mesquite, and shadscale; and Joshua trees, pinyons, junipers, and sub-alpine bristlecone pines.
Photo Ops
For a spectacular sunrise shot, position yourself at Dante's View, Zabriskie Point, or at the Mesquite Flat sand dunes. Great sunset shots can be had from Zabriskie Point, the sand dunes, Artist's Palette and Aguereberry Point. Artist's Drive, with its hills of colored volcanic and sedimentary rock, is especially photogenic in late afternoon. The jagged rock-salt spires of Devil's Golf Course make for some surreal shots.
Smart Traveler Strategies
If you only have two hours to explore this sprawling park, drive along Badwater Road, the park's most popular. Stop by Devil's Golf Course and Badwater. Take the Artist's Drive on your return trip along Highway 190. If you're continuing east after your time in the park, visit Zabriskie Point. If heading west, check out the sand dunes.
Hand-held GPS systems containing a self-guided ranger tour to more than 80 GPS hot spots in the park are available for rent at the Furnace Creek visitors center. Ranger-guided programs are available mid-October through mid-April.
For something different, plan your visit to coincide with the fall or spring migration of the many birds that pass through the park, which, with its wide diversity of habitats, constitutes one of the most impressive ornithological biomes in the entire National Park system.
When to Visit
While the park is open year-round, summers may be too hot for some visitors, limiting them to touring by car and taking the higher-altitude hikes to Telescope and Wildrose Peaks, where elevation eases the heat. Falls are pleasant and warm, with clear skies. The annual '49ers Encampment is held in November and features contests, races, entertainments, and a parade. In winter, snow caps the higher peaks and the valleys become much cooler. Spring regularly brings spectacular wildflower displays to some of the park's landscapes.
Where to Stay
There are nine campgrounds within the park, as well as backcountry camping opportunities that require a permit.
In the heart of the park, Furnace Creek Ranch, once a working ranch, offers cabin (from $124) and standard motel (from $144) accommodations as well as horseback riding and carriage rides. Open year-round.
The privately owned, 66-room Furnace Creek Inn is a first-class option, with a swimming pool, tennis courts, and an oasis-style garden. From $305; not open in summer months.
Nestled inside the west entrance to the park, with views of distant sand dunes and the Panamint Mountains, the Panamint Springs Resort offers hotel (from $79), camping ($15 for tents), and RV park accommodations. The resort claims to be 10-15 degrees cooler than accommodations farther inside the park.
Thirty miles east of Furnace Creek, at Death Valley Junction, you'll find Marta Becket's unique Amargosa Hotel, once part of the company town established by the Pacific Coast Borax Company. Some of the hotel rooms have painted murals of dancers, clowns, and cherubs.
Excursions Outside the Park
There is more to the Amargosa Hotel than just accommodations: It also is home to the Amargosa Opera House, where floor-to-ceiling murals depict everything from royal figures to monks, nuns, and bullfighters, and weekly dance, comedy, and mime shows are held.
For a glimpse of art off the grid, head to the Goldwell Open Air Museum, situated in a ghost town just east of the central section of Death Valley, near Beatty, NV. Here a group of Belgian artists sited seven unusual sculptures, among them a life-size interpretation of Leonardo Da Vinci's painting "The Last Supper" and a 25-foot-high representation of a woman rendered with pink cinderblocks. Admission is free.
Guided nature tours and geological walks along the Old Spanish Trail are just some of the offerings at the China Ranch Date Farm in Tecopa, a unique family farm in an unusual setting of cottonwood trees and willows along a meandering stream.
Formed tens of thousands of years ago, the Trona Pinnacles, a National Natural Landmark, consist of more than 500 tufa (calcium carbonate) outcroppings rising up to 140 feet above the Searles Dry Lake basin. The strange landscape is especially dramatic in the early morning, in the evening, and on nights with a full moon.
An abundance of national park system sites are within driving distance of Death Valley. California-based sites include Joshua Tree National Park, Manzanar National Historic Site, Mojave National Preserve, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, and Yosemite National Park. Nevada-based sites include Lake Mead National Recreation Area and Great Basin National Park.
Advisories
Always bring water with you when hiking in Death Valley—at least two liters for a short winter hike and at least six liters for summer and longer hikes. Some dangerous creatures live in the park, such as rattlesnakes, scorpions, and black widow spiders. Don't put your feet or hands into any crevices you can't first see into. Don't enter any of the 6,000 to 10,000 abandoned mines in the park: They may be unstable, contain bad air or poisonous gases, or have dangerous hidden shafts.
More From National Geographic
From National Geographic, "Raising Heaven," by Tim Cahill, photographs by Michael Melford, published November, 2007
National Geographic video of Death Valley
From National Geographic Adventure, "Dig Deep in the World of Extremes," by Robert Earle Howells, published June 2008
From National Geographic Traveler, Death Valley Travelwise
Satellite Image and Downloadable Wallpaper
3D DVD National Geographic National Parks Collection, Death Valley (available August 2009)
Death Valley National Park Trails Illustrated topographic map from National Geographic Maps
Copy for this series includes excerpts from National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States, Sixth Edition, 2009, and our National Parks series featured in National Geographic Traveler. See staff contributors here.