Death Valley National Park, USA

Death Valley National Park, located on the southeastern border of California just two hours west of Las Vegas, Nevada, is known for its extremes. The largest national park in the contiguous United States, it is the hottest, driest and lowest place in North America. Approximately 95% of the park is a designated wilderness area, containing a diverse desert environment of salt-flats, sand dunes, badlands, valleys, canyons, and mountains. With so much to see, Death Valley is an ideal destination for all lovers of the great outdoors.

The valley is a long, low depression set in largely barren and unpopulated country of desert plains and rocky ridges, east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It is over 130 miles long, but only around 12 miles wide, running roughly north-south near the border with Nevada. From an elevation of 1000 meters at the north end, the land slopes down steadily and for 70 miles the floor is below sea level, reaching a low point of -282 feet (-86 meters) at Badwater, the lowest point in the Western hemisphere. The depth of the depression is partly responsible for the extreme high temperatures, which can exceed 130°F in summer. High, unvegetated mountains of sombre reddish colour flank the narrow valley on both sides; a few are high enough to have snow for many months of the year.

The protected area, proclaimed a National Monument in 1933, was extended in 1994 (by the Desert Protection Act) to include an additional 1200,000 acres, mainly in the little-visited northwest section, and was upgraded in status to a National Park; this now covers 3 million acres, making it the largest in the US outside Alaska. Nearly 550 square miles are below sea level. There are many interesting sites and viewpoints beside the paved roads, and a good selection of short to moderate trails, but the majority of the area is reachable only by 4WD tracks or long cross-country hikes, this latter possible only during winter and spring owing to the high temperatures and lack of water at other times.

 

Sites Not to Be Missed

Badwater Basin and Devil's Golfcourse

A surreal landscape of vast salt flats comprised of almost pure table salt awaits at the Badwater Basin. While the basin appears as a massive expanse of white with a few pools of standing water created after rainstorms, the surface at Devil's Golf Course is made up of jagged spires reminiscent of a coral reef eroded like so by wind and rain.

Dante's View

From a vantage point 5,500 feet above sea level, take in a panoramic view of the southern Death Valley basin. Look down into Badwater, the lowest dry point in North America. Across the valley, notice Telescope Peak, the highest point in the park at 11,331 feet above sea level, often snow-capped. On very clear days, the highest and lowest points in the contiguous 48 states can be seen: Mount Whitney at 14,505 feet and Badwater at -282 feet.

Artist's Palette

A vista along Artist's Drive, a 9 mile paved scenic loop through multi-hued volcanic and sedimentary hills, Artist's Palette is a picturesque display of various colors of rock caused by the oxidation of different metals.

Titus Canyon

The scenic 26 mile one-way dirt road leading through the largest and most diverse canyon in Death Valley starts outside the park boundary a few miles south of Beaty NV. Along the way to the narrow, winding gorge at the canyon mouth, visitors will come across interesting rock formations, beautiful vistas, Indian petroglyphs, and Leadfield ghost town. Prior to the start of the route, be sure to take the side trip to Rhyolite, "one of the most photographed ghost towns in the West."

Scotty's Castle

Also known as Death Valley Ranch, the two story villa is neither an actual castle nor was it ever owned by the gold prospector Walter E. Scott for whom it was named. Once a vacation home of his wealthy friends, Scotty's Castle offers ranger-led living history tours for a look at life and times of the Roaring 20s and the Great Depression.

Twenty Mule Team Canyon

A winding, scenic 2.7 mile unpaved drive through otherworldly badlands, the loop gives visitors a sense of the narrow routes travelled by twenty-mule teams that carried borax out of Death Valley in the 1880s.

Natural Bridge

A short hike of 10 to 15 minutes leads to a natural stone bridge, with interesting rock formations and smooth vertical chutes caused by dry waterfalls seen on the canyon walls along the way.

Zabriskie Point

One of the most visited overlooks within the park, Zabriskie Point is noted for its erosional landscape composed of sediments from Furnace Creek Lake which dried up 5 million years ago.