Death Valley National Park

Entering Death Valley National Park at Towne Pass, State Highway 190 crests the rolling Panamint Range and descends into Emigrant Wash. Along the road is a sign: Death Valley National Park. More introduction to Death Valley >>

Park History

Today’s visitor to Death Valley drives in air-conditioned comfort, stays in comfortable hotel rooms or well-maintained campground, orders meals and provisions at park concessions, even quaffs a beer at the local saloon. He or she may take a swim in the Olympic-sized pool, tour a Moorish castle, shop for souvenirs, and enjoy the desert landscape while hiking along a nature trail with a park ranger.

It hasn’t always been so. Read more about Death Valley's History >>

Park Highlights

The Death Valley Visitor Center Museum offers well-done interpretive exhibits and an hourly slide program. Ask at the information desk for ranger-led nature walks and evening interpretive programs. Visitor Center hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. all year.

Perhaps the most scenic entry to the park is via State Route 190, east from Highway 395 through Towne Pass. Another scenic drive to the park is by way of Highways 127 and 190 from Baker.

A good first stop after checking in at the main park visitor center in Furnace Creek is the Harmony Bopraz Works—a rock salt landscape as tortured as you’ll ever find. “White gold,” Death Valley prospectors called borax., and though it was not exactly a glamorous substance, it was a profitable one. From 1883 to 1888, more than 20 million pounds of borax were transported from the Harmony Borax Works. A short trail with interpretive sighs leads past the ruins of the old borax refinery and some outlying buildings.

Transport of the borax was the stuff of legends, too. The famous 20-mule teams hauled the huge loaded wagons 165 miles to the rail station at Mojave. (To learn more about this colorful era, visit the Borax Museum at Furnace Creek Ranch and the park visitor center, also located in Furnace Creek.)

Salt Creek is the home of the Salt Creek pupfish, found nowhere else on earth. The little fish, which has made some amazing adaptations to survive in this arid land, can be glimpsed from a wooden boardwalk nature trail. In spring, a million pupfish might be wriggling in the creek; by summer’s end, only a few thousand remain.

Before sunrise, photographers set up their tripods at Zabriskie Point and point their cameras at the pale mudstone hills of Golden Canyon and the great valley beyond. The panoramic view of Golden Canyon is magnificent, but don’t miss getting right into the canyon itself—only possible by hitting the trail.

Another grand park vista is seen at Dante’s View. From this 5,475-foot viewpoint in the Black Mountains, one can see the Funeral Mountains, Greenwater Valley, and the shimmering Death Valley floor backed by the high Panamint Mountains.

A 14-square-mile field of dunes and some bizarre geology are some of the attractions of a visit to the Stove Pipe Wells area. Death Valley’s dunes lie between Towne Pass on the west and Daylight Pass to the east; there’s quite a sand-laden draft between the passes. The sand dunes are actually tiny pieces of rock, most of them quartz fragments.

Those surreal corn stalks you see across Highway 190 from the dunes are actually clumps of arrowweed. The Devil’s Cornstalks are perched on wind- and water-eroded pedestals.

Mosaic Canyon, located near Stovepipe Wells, displays mosaics of water-polished white, gray and black rock. Nature has cemented the canyon’s stream gravels into mosaics large and small. It’s easy to imagine you’ve entered an art gallery when you view the mosaics on the canyon wells; not only are nature’s works of art on display, but the long, narrow, white marble walls of the canyon seem quite “gallery”-like.

Camping

The park’s nine campground are located at elevations ranging from below sea level to 8,000 feet. In Furnace Creek, Sunset offers 1,000 spaces with water and flush toilets. Furnace Creek Campground has 200 similarly appointed spaces. Stovepipe Wells has 200 spaces with water and flush toilets. More Death Valley Campgrounds & Backcountry Camping >>

Lodging

Furnace Creek Ranch has 225 no-frills cottage units with air conditioning and showers. The swimming pool is a popular hangout for tired lodgers. Nearby are a coffee shop, cafeteria, steak house, Mexican restaurant, and general store. Stove Pipe Wells Village has 74 modest rooms with air conditioning and showers. The Furnace Creek Inn, an elegant resort, boasts 67 deluxe rooms with a formal dining room, heated pool, golf, and tennis courts.

Because accommodation in Death Valley is both limited and fairly expensive, consider spending a night at one of the two gateway towns: Lone Pine on the west side of the park, and Baker on the south. Beatty, Nevada, which has inexpensive lodging, is only a 20-minute drive from the park’s eastern boundary. The restored Amargosa Hotel in Death Valley Junction offers 14 rooms in a historic out-of-the-way place. More Death Valley lodging >>

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Scotty's Castle

Death Valley Scotty told everyone that he built this castle in the hidden canyons of Death Valley. That was not quite the truth. Albert Mussey Johnson, Chicago millionaire businessman, built his "Death Valley Ranch" in the cool of Grapevine Canyon and he let his cowboy mining partner, Scotty, live there as a guest. Scotty's Castle is a fantasy house built by and for several fantastic characters. More about Scotty's Castle >>   

Important Notice: Due to equipment failure, no gasoline is available at Scotty's Castle. The nearest gas is available at Stovepipe Wells (45 miles), Furnace Creek (53 miles), Beatty, Nevada (60 miles) and Tonopah, Nevada (80 miles).

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Plants and Animals

A multitude of living things have miraculously adapted to living in this land of little water, extreme heat and high winds. Two dozen Death Valley plant species grow nowhere else on earth, including Death Valley sandpaper plant, Panamint locoweed, and napkin-ring buckwheat.

In spring, even this most forbidding of deserts breaks into bloom. The deep blue pea-shaped flowers of the indigo bush brighten Daylight Pass. Lupine, paintbrush and Panamint daisies grow on the lower slopes of the Panamint Mountains while Mojave wildrose and mariposa lily dot the higher slopes.

Two hundred species of birds are found in Death Valley. The brown whip-like stems of the creosote bush help shelter the movements of the kangaroo rat, desert tortoise and antelope ground squirrel. Night covers the movements of the bobcat, fox and coyote. Small bands of bighorn sheep roam remote slopes and peaks. Three species of desert pupfish, survivors from the Ice Age, are found in the valley’s saline creeks and pools.

Wildflowers in Death Valley

Death Valley is home to more than 1000 plant species, and in that rare spring after good fall rains, the wildflower show can be magnificent!

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Climate Summary

Death Valley is generally sunny, dry, and clear throughout the year. The winters, November through March, are mild with occasional winter storms, but summers are extremely hot and dry. Summer high temperatures commonly run above 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Comfortable clothing providing sun protection and a broad brimmed hat are recommended in summer. Winter requires warmer clothing and light to medium jackets. Sturdy walking shoes are important year round.

A land of extremes and superlatives, there are locations within the park that allow the visitor to see both the lowest and highest elevations in the 48 contiguious United States on a clear day. Death Valley features the hottest recorded temperature in the U. S. as well as the lowest annual precipitation, the tallest sand dunes, and at 13,628 square kilometers, is the largest National Park in the 48 contiguous United States.

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