Wedged between Route 395 and the Nevada border, Death Valley is one of the USA's largest National Parks and home to more sights of interest than you might think despite its name. So much so, we made two trips to see it.
Most of the attractions are rock, sand dunes and landscape based, but there are a lot of critters roaming around if you go looking for them. Be sure to bring a plentiful supply of water as this place gets hot ... 41 degrees Celsius during April on our visit, and it can go up to a mind boggling 56 degrees in the height of summer ... scorchio!
For us, the highlight was the Racetrack Playa which is a dry lake bed with a crusty mosaic like surface. The unusual part is that stones have a tendency to move of their own accord across the surface. Bizarre?!?
Other attractions include Ubehebe crater, the dunes at Stovepipe Wells, Devil's Golf course, Badwater (the lowest elevation point in North America), Artist's Palette, Mosaic Canyon and Zabriskie Point.
We camped one night also in a managed campsite at Stovepipe Wells which was a fantastic experience. The temperature was toasty, dark night, brilliant stars, boxed wine delivering an endless supply of merlot, bbq food, wilderness silence and good company. Does it get much better than that?
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By Darrell Grundy - visited on 18 April 2002