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A Park Hub Field Guide
Lat 36.4619° N
Long 116.8668° W
Elevation-282 – 11,049 ft

California · Stamp 21 / 63

DeathValley

National Park · Established 1994

The hottest, driest, lowest place in North America, and somehow one of the most beautiful.

Area3,373,063 acres
TrailheadDeath Valley, California
Visitors1.1M / yr
Scroll to begin the ascent
Live · Park open 24 hrs Extreme heat warning common May–Sep 1 active alert 108°F · carry more water than seems reasonable Live layer, from the National Park Service
Best windowNov–Mar · summer heat can be lethal Getting there2 hr from Las Vegas · 4.5 hr from Los Angeles Fee$30 / vehicle · 7 days
★★★★★ 4.9 from 4 travelers 1 visitor stories 1.1M annual visitors Grounded in live NPS data
Death Valley · Mile 01 · The Story

The lowest, hottest ground
in North America.

Badwater Basin sits 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in North America, and on a summer afternoon the ground temperature there has been measured well over 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The valley's shape traps and compresses air as it sinks, and the surrounding peaks block ocean moisture entirely, which is why Death Valley holds the record for the hottest air temperature ever reliably recorded on Earth.

None of that makes it empty. More than a thousand plant species grow here, several found nowhere else, and every few years enough winter rain triggers a superbloom that carpets the valley floor in gold and purple for a few unpredictable weeks. The same geology that makes the heat so extreme also produces some of the most striking badlands and canyon color in the Southwest, at Zabriskie Point and Artists Palette alike.

Come for the extremes. Stay for the fact that a landscape this hostile is also this beautiful. Read the story, take the heat warning above seriously, and when you leave, collect the stamp.

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“
Death Valley: the very name summons up images of a desolate and lifeless land ... in truth the valley is full of life and color, changing dramatically from hour to hour and season to season.
Adapted from National Park Service interpretive materials on Death Valley
Dante's View · Above the Basin
"The mountains are calling and I must go."
John Muir
Death Valley · Mile 02 · The Essentials

Best Things to Do in Death Valley

Six ways to spend your time, from the lowest point in North America to a viewpoint 5,000 feet above it.

See

Badwater Basin

A salt-flat walk 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in North America. Early morning or evening only in warmer months.

The signature stop
See

Zabriskie Point at sunrise

Golden badlands eroded into impossible textures, best when the low sun rakes across the ridges.

Photographers · dawn
Drive

Artists Drive

A one-way scenic loop past Artists Palette, where mineral oxidation paints the hillsides pink, green, and purple.

Casual · road-trippers
Do

Walk the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

Rolling dunes near Stovepipe Wells, best at sunrise or sunset when the light and temperature both cooperate.

Everyone · dawn or dusk
See

Dante's View

A viewpoint over a mile above Badwater Basin, cool even when the valley floor is unbearable.

Everyone · half day
Camp

Furnace Creek Campground

The park's most developed campground, with access to the visitor center and the world's lowest golf course. Reserve for winter.

Campers · winter season
Free · Ready in Seconds
Free AI Trip Planner

Plan Your Death Valley Trip

Answer a few questions right here — we'll map your day, stop by stop, with a route, timings, weather, and a packing checklist grounded in real park data. No account, no leaving this page.

Free preview · no card required
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Your adventure, printed
Field-guide posters and the passport book, from our shop.
When the Crowds ComeMonthly visitors · tap a year
Illustrative shape · wires to official NPS visitation stats · summer peaks shown in gold
Zabriskie Point · Badlands at Dawn
"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit."
Edward Abbey
Death Valley · Mile 03 · Trails & Viewpoints

Best Hikes in Death Valley, by Difficulty

Every trail rated honestly, with distance, climb, and a blunt reminder: this park has killed unprepared hikers. Carry water accordingly.

Badwater Basin Salt Flats

Easy
1.5 miflat~1 hr

A flat out-and-back onto the salt flats from the lowest parking lot in North America. Avoid midday in summer entirely. No permit.

Zabriskie Point Overlook

Easy
0.3 mi+100 ft~20 min

A short paved climb to the classic badlands overlook, worth timing for sunrise light. No permit.

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

Easy–Mod
2 mi+100 ft~1.5 hr

No marked trail; walk as far into the dunes as you like. Sand holds heat, so dawn or dusk only in warmer months. No permit.

Golden Canyon Trail

Easy–Mod
3 mi+400 ft~2 hr

A narrow canyon of golden badlands leading toward Zabriskie Point's Red Cathedral formation. No permit.

Artists Palette Loop

Easy
0.5 miflat~30 min

A short walk among the mineral-streaked hillsides accessible from the Artists Drive loop road. No permit.

Permit · winter conditions

Telescope Peak

Extreme
14 mi+3,000 ft8–10 hr

The park's highest point at 11,049 feet, often snow-covered in winter when the valley floor bakes below. No permit required but winter mountaineering gear may be necessary.

No permit for day hikes · free backcountry permits recommended for overnight camping · summer hiking after 10am strongly discouraged park-wide

Death Valley National Park at a Glance
1  Furnace Creek Visitor Center
2  Badwater Basin
3  Zabriskie Point
4  Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
5  Dante’s View
6  Artists Palette
Stops shown in visit order. Build a plan above and this map updates to your exact stops.
Death Valley · Mile 04 · Life in the Extreme

Wildlife in Death Valley: Animals You Might See

Tap any animal to learn its story. Soon, the app will let you log what you spot and keep a life list for every park.

One of the rarest fish on Earth, living in a single geothermal pool and nowhere else on the planet, a relic of ancient lakes that once filled the valley.

Survives on remarkably little water, working the steep canyon terrain where few other large mammals can follow.

Hunts only at night to avoid the worst heat, with oversized ears that help radiate excess body warmth.

Spends much of its life underground avoiding surface heat, emerging mainly during the cooler months to feed.

One of many beetle species adapted to survive on the valley's dunes and salt flats, active mostly after sundown.

Thrives near developed areas, scavenging effectively enough to be one of the valley's most visible birds year-round.

A separate pupfish species surviving in a tiny, hypersaline creek, tolerating water conditions that would kill most freshwater fish.

Plant Life in Death Valley: What Grows Here

One of the standout wildflowers of a rare wet-winter superbloom, carpeting the valley floor in gold for a few unpredictable weeks.

Deep-rooted enough to tap groundwater far below the surface, anchoring the sand at Mesquite Flat and giving the dunes their name.

One of the longest-lived plants on Earth, some individual clonal rings estimated at over 10,000 years old.

A pink, bell-shaped bloom that appears after sufficiently wet winters, one of the park's most photographed wildflowers.

Grows near Telescope Peak's summit, among the oldest living trees on Earth, some individuals exceeding 3,000 years.

A large-flowered daisy nearly endemic to the park's canyons, rare enough that sightings are noted by park botanists.

Fun Facts About Death Valley

Fact 01

Badwater Basin sits 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in North America.

Fact 02

Death Valley holds the record for the hottest reliably recorded air temperature on Earth, 134°F at Furnace Creek in 1913.

Fact 03

The park is the largest national park in the contiguous United States at over 3.3 million acres.

Fact 04

A rare superbloom after sufficiently wet winters can carpet the valley floor in wildflowers, an event that may not repeat for a decade.

Death Valley · Provisions
Gear for this parkvia AvantLink
4L+ water storageREI
Wide-brim sun hatBackcountry
Electrolyte packetsOsprey
Stay nearbyvia Hipcamp
Desert sites near Furnace Creek
Ten minutes from the visitor center, star-filled skies included, from $25 a night.
Free Death Valley checklistdigital · $0
The printable trail and packing checklist in the field-guide style. Take it, join the trail list.
Death Valley · Mile 05 · From the Field Journal

Go Deeper on Death Valley

Stories, guides, and hard-won tips from the trail. The full Death Valley deep dive lives on the journal.

Safety

Death Valley Heat Safety: What the Warnings Actually Mean

Read the guide →
Photo Guide

Zabriskie Point at Sunrise: Timing the Light Right

Read the guide →
Itinerary

2 Perfect Days in Death Valley: Basin, Badlands, and Dunes

Read the guide →
Sponsored · Park Hub
The field guide, in your pocket
Offline maps and your passport. Join the app waitlist.
Sponsored · Park Hub
Free Death Valley checklist
The printable trail and packing list, in the field-guide style.
★Death ValleyPark Hub · Collected
Your passport

One stamp,
one story.

Log the visit, keep your story, and watch the map of all sixty-three fill in behind you. Every stamp has a keepsake worth holding.

Death Valley · Mile 06 · Where to Next

Keep the Journey Going

Next park

Joshua Tree

South across the Mojave: from the lowest point in North America to a desert of granite boulders.

Open Stamp 13 → The collection

All 63 Parks

See the full map and track every stamp you have earned.

View the map → Plan

Build a Trip

Turn Death Valley into a road trip with a custom, day-by-day itinerary.

Start planning → Go deeper

The Death Valley Deep Dive

The long-form guide: every trail, season, and secret, on the journal.

Read it →
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Forty-two parks remain
"The parks do not belong to one state or to one section... they belong as much to the man of Massachusetts, of Michigan, of Florida, as they do to the people of California, of Wyoming, and of Arizona."
Stephen Mather · first director of the National Park Service
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