Happenin’
Places › California › Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park

Photo: Julietvbarbara / CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

🏜️ Canyons & deserts

Death Valley National Park

Furnace Creek, CA · Mojave Desert

About

Death Valley National Park is the hottest, driest, and lowest national park in the country, a vast basin of salt flats, sculpted badlands, and dunes near Furnace Creek, California. Walk out onto the cracked white polygons of Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in North America, then catch sunrise over the rippled ridges of Zabriskie Point. Come October through April, when the desert heat eases to comfortable hiking weather.

Highlights

Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level, North America's lowest pointZabriskie Point's golden badlands at sunriseMesquite Flat Sand DunesArtists Palette drive through mineral-stained hillsFurnace Creek, site of Earth's hottest recorded air temperature

Getting there

Furnace Creek Visitor Center, CA-190, Death Valley, CA 92328

Related places

Joshua Tree National Park Canyons & deserts

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree, CA · Mojave Desert

Joshua Tree National Park is where two California deserts collide, the high Mojave bristling with twisted Joshua trees and the lower Colorado giving way to spiny ocotillo and cholla. Scramble the wind-sculpted granite at Hidden Valley, then drive up to Keys View for a 5,000-foot panorama over the Coachella Valley and the San Andreas Fault. Spring wildflowers and famously dark night skies make it a draw year round.

Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park Canyons & deserts

Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park

Gainesville, FL · North Central Florida

Devil's Millhopper is a 120-foot-deep, 500-foot-wide sinkhole near Gainesville that hides a miniature rainforest where Florida almost never has one. A boardwalk and 132 steps descend past fern-draped limestone walls and trickling cascades to the cool, shaded bowl at the bottom. The seepage waterfalls run strongest in late winter and early spring, when the streams are at their fullest.

Grand Canyon National Park Canyons & deserts

Grand Canyon National Park

Tusayan, AZ · Grand Canyon

One of the world's great natural wonders, the Grand Canyon is a mile deep, up to 18 miles wide, and 277 river miles long, carved by the Colorado River over millions of years. The South Rim is open year round and packs the most accessible viewpoints, lodges, and trailheads, making it the side most visitors choose for a first trip. Sunrise and sunset set the layered red rock walls ablaze, and the sheer scale rewards anyone willing to make the journey.

Part of these collections

Curated guides that feature Death Valley National Park.

The United States National Parks63 places

The United States National Parks

All 63 of America's national parks in one place: the geysers and canyons, glaciers and giant sequoias, coral reefs and live volcanoes the country set aside for everyone. From the Grand Canyon to the Everglades to the wilds of Alaska, this is the complete collection, each one worth building a whole trip around.

Best Dark Sky Stargazing in the US15 places

Best Dark Sky Stargazing in the US

Where to go when you want the Milky Way instead of a glow on the horizon. Fifteen places with genuinely dark skies, from the least light-polluted park in the lower 48 to a 9,200-foot volcano above the cloud layer, an Appalachian ridge with a 360-degree horizon, and an Alaskan hot spring under the aurora.