Death Valley National Park Guide: Best Stops, Safety and When to Go

Visit Death Valley National Park between November and March, stay at Furnace Creek or Stovepipe Wells, and plan one or two days. See sunrise at Zabriskie Point, walk onto the salt flats at Badwater Basin, drive Artists Drive in the late afternoon and watch sunset from Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. Fill your gas tank before you enter, carry a gallon of water per person per day, and never hike in summer after 10 a.m.

Death Valley holds three national records. It is the hottest place in North America, with an air temperature of 134°F recorded at Furnace Creek in July 1913. It is the driest. And Badwater Basin, at 282 feet below sea level, is the lowest point on the continent. It is also the largest national park in the lower 48, at more than 3.4 million acres. None of that sounds inviting. But on a clear January morning, with snow on Telescope Peak and golden light on the badlands, it is one of the most beautiful places in America.

• −282 ftBadwater Basin, lowest in North America
• 134°FWorld record air temperature, 1913
• $30Vehicle entry, valid 7 days
• Nov–MarThe comfortable season

When to go, and the summer question

Winter and early spring are the season. From November to March, daytime highs are usually in the 60s and 70s at Furnace Creek, and nights can drop to freezing. The light is low and golden for most of the day. Spring brings wildflowers in good years; rare “superblooms,” after unusually wet winters, cover the valley floor with yellow desert gold.

Summer is a different place. Highs regularly pass 120°F. Some visitors come specifically for the heat, to stand at Badwater and feel it. That is fine, if you treat it as a drive-and-look trip. Stay near your air-conditioned car, carry plenty of water and do not hike. Rangers deal with heat deaths and rescues most summers, and car breakdowns can become emergencies within an hour. The park’s own advice is to stop hiking at low elevations by 10 a.m. in summer.

Fall, from October to early November, is mild and quiet. It is a great time to come. Avoid the big holiday weekends if you can, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas to New Year and Presidents’ Day. Rooms at Furnace Creek sell out and the popular viewpoints fill with tour buses from Las Vegas.

The essential stops

Zabriskie Point is the park’s famous sunrise spot. The eroded badlands catch the first light and glow gold and orange, with the sharp ridge of Manly Beacon in the middle. It is crowded with photographers. It is also worth it.

Badwater Basin is the low point. A sign on the cliff above the parking lot marks sea level, 282 feet above your head. Walk past the trampled area for at least a mile onto the flats, where the salt forms hexagonal ridges and crunches under your feet. The farther you go, the whiter and more otherworldly it gets.

Artists Drive is a one-way loop through hills colored pink, green, purple and yellow by minerals in the rock. The colors are best in the late afternoon. Vehicles longer than 25 feet are not allowed.

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, near Stovepipe Wells, are the easiest dunes to reach. There are no trails. Walk out toward the tallest dune and enjoy the patterns in the sand. Go at sunrise or sunset for the long shadows that make the dunes look sculpted.

Farther-flung highlights

Death Valley is huge, and some of its best sights take time to reach. Ubehebe Crater, in the north, is a volcanic crater about half a mile wide and 500 feet deep. You can walk the rim or hike down, though the return climb in loose cinders is tough.

The Racetrack is a remote dry lakebed where rocks slide across the ground, leaving long tracks behind them. Scientists confirmed in 2014 that thin sheets of ice pushed by light winds move them. The road there is rough, slow gravel with sharp rocks that destroy normal tires. You need a high-clearance vehicle with good all-terrain tires and a spare, and ideally two. Most rental car contracts forbid driving on these roads. Respect that.

Scotty’s Castle, a 1920s Spanish-style mansion in the north, was badly damaged by a flash flood in 2015 and has been closed to regular visits for years during repairs. Check the park website for any tours or reopening news.

A one-day plan

Sunrise. Zabriskie Point.

Morning. Walk the Golden Canyon trail toward Red Cathedral, then drive south to Badwater Basin and walk onto the salt flats. Stop at the Devil’s Golf Course, a field of jagged salt crystals, on the way back.

Midday. Lunch at Furnace Creek and a visit to the visitor center, with its exhibits on the desert and the Timbisha Shoshone people, who have lived in the valley for centuries and still do.

Afternoon. Drive Artists Drive in the low light.

Sunset. Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, or Dante’s View for a big-picture view of the whole valley.

With two days

Add Mosaic Canyon near Stovepipe Wells, a narrow canyon with smooth polished marble walls, about 2 to 4 miles round trip. Drive north to Ubehebe Crater. Or head west to Father Crowley Vista and the Panamint Valley. At night, stay out for the stars. Death Valley is a Gold Tier International Dark Sky Park, with some of the darkest skies in the country. Our stargazing guide explains how to make the most of it.

Heat and safety rules

• Carry at least one gallon of water per person per day, plus extra in the car.
• Keep your gas tank at least half full. Stations are few and far apart.
• Don’t trust GPS shortcuts. They sometimes send drivers down closed or impassable roads.
• In summer, hike only in the early morning, at high elevation or not at all.
• If your car breaks down, stay with it. It is easier to find than a person.
• Watch for flash floods during rare storms. Stay out of washes when rain is falling.
• Expect no cell service in much of the park.

These rules sound dramatic. They are just how the desert works. Follow them and Death Valley is a safe and wonderful place to visit.

Where to stay

Furnace Creek is the main hub, with the Inn at Death Valley, a historic resort with spring-fed pools and palm gardens, and the more casual Ranch at Death Valley, with a general store and restaurants. Stovepipe Wells Village, about 25 miles northwest, has a motel, a store and a saloon near the dunes. Panamint Springs Resort, in the west, is small and remote. Campgrounds at Furnace Creek, Stovepipe Wells, Texas Springs and Sunset take reservations or are first-come depending on season.

Outside the park, Beatty, Nevada, and Pahrump, Nevada, have cheaper motels. Lone Pine, California, is a beautiful base on the west side, below Mount Whitney.

Getting there

Las Vegas is the closest major airport, about two hours from Furnace Creek. Los Angeles is about four and a half to five hours. Many visitors combine Death Valley with a road trip through the Eastern Sierra or with Las Vegas. Our Las Vegas on a budget guide covers the city end.

What it costs

Entry is $30 per vehicle, valid for seven days, or covered by the annual pass. Pay at the visitor center or at self-service machines; there are no staffed entrance gates on most roads. Lodging inside the park ranges from about $150 to well over $400 a night in peak winter months. Gas inside the park costs considerably more than outside, so fill up in Pahrump, Beatty or Lone Pine.

Common mistakes

Underestimating distances. The park is bigger than Connecticut. Getting from one area to another can take one or two hours.

Driving the Racetrack road in a rental sedan. Flat tires there are expensive and dangerous.

Visiting in July and hiking at noon. Don’t.

Leaving at sunset. The stars are as good as anything you see in daylight.

Death Valley is not dead

The name, given by gold-rush emigrants who got stranded here in the winter of 1849, gives the wrong idea. The park is full of life adapted to extremes. Desert bighorn sheep live in the mountains. Coyotes trot along the roads at dawn. Roadrunners dart across parking lots. In Salt Creek, a short boardwalk trail north of Furnace Creek, tiny pupfish swim in salty water, survivors of a time when the valley held a huge lake. They are found nowhere else on Earth. Visit in late winter or early spring, when they are most active and males turn bright blue during breeding.

Plants are just as tough. Creosote bushes, some of them thousands of years old as clonal rings, cover the lower slopes. Mesquite trees send roots down more than 50 feet for water. After rain, seeds that waited years in the soil can burst into bloom within weeks.

Wildflowers and the rare lake

In most years, spring brings scattered flowers along the roads and washes from about February to April. In rare wet years, the valley floor explodes into a superbloom, with miles of yellow desert gold, purple phacelia and white evening primrose. Famous blooms happened in 2005 and 2016. The park posts updates on bloom conditions each spring. If you hear the word superbloom, drop everything and go.

Even rarer is water. After the remnants of Hurricane Hilary in August 2023 and heavy rain that followed, a temporary lake formed at Badwater Basin, nicknamed Lake Manly after the ancient lake that once filled the valley. In early 2024 people briefly kayaked on it, something almost nobody alive had done before. It evaporated within months. That is Death Valley: it keeps surprising people.

Photography tips

Death Valley’s light is the reason so many photographers come back. Shoot the dunes in the first and last hour, when shadows define every ripple. Zabriskie Point is best at sunrise, Artists Palette in late afternoon, and Badwater’s salt polygons look best in low side light or under a full moon. Bring a lens cloth. Fine dust and salt get on everything. And remember that drones are not allowed in national parks.

With kids

Kids love the dunes. Give them a plastic sled or just let them run and roll. The salt flats feel like walking on another planet, and the pupfish at Salt Creek are a fun scavenger hunt. Pick up a Junior Ranger booklet at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. Keep outings short, plan around the heat even in spring, and pack more water and snacks than you think you need.

Frequently asked questions

Your Death Valley checklist

1. Pick dates between November and March, ideally near a new moon.
2. Book a room at Furnace Creek or Stovepipe Wells, or a campsite.
3. Fill up on gas and buy water before you enter.
4. Download offline maps. You will lose signal.