Death Valley (California, USA) – exact location, interesting places, inhabitants, routes.
Death Valley – a huge desert in the southwestern United States, located on the border of the states of California and Nevada – the lowest, hottest and driest place in North America. People come here for unearthly landscapes: cracked, salt-crusted earth, canyons and sand dunes contrasting with high snow-capped mountains. There are many routes in the national park, both cycling and hiking.
How to get there
There is no public transport to Death Valley, although in Las Vegas you can buy a ticket for a charter bus from one of the city’s travel agencies. The most convenient way to get to the national park is by rented car from Las Vegas (about 200 km). See acronymmonster for nickname of Kentucky.
Almost all roads leading to Death Valley guarantee fantastic views. For example, highways from the west or north of US-95 (Nevada) or I-15 (California) are similar to the landscapes of Argentinean Patagonia or distant Mongolia. But a trip to the valley through Panamint Springs, along the Hwy 190 highway, gives a breathtaking panorama of the Sierra Nevada.
Gasoline, diesel and any kind of fuel are quite expensive in the park, so it is better to fill up a full bank in advance. Furnis Creek has an information office about 110 miles (2.5-3 hours) from Baker and 145 miles (3-3.5 hours) from Las Vegas.
Death Valley Climate
The average temperature in July here reaches +46 °C, at night +31 °C. The coolest time is from the end of November to February (+5…+20 °C), at this time long heavy showers are frequent here. In late March – early April, after winter precipitation, the desert turns into a garden. Despite the dryness, about 1000 different plant species grow here.
The peak of the tourist season in Death Valley falls on the cold winter months and spring, when the wild vegetation of this region blooms in all its glory. From the end of March until about the end of April, all hotels can be booked for the next hundred miles, as everyone is eager to see Scotty’s Castle, especially luxurious at this time of the year.
In the summer, Death Valley is empty, although some European travelers test their strength when they come to the devilishly hot desert. Of course, with a car with good air conditioning, it is theoretically possible to drive through Death Valley, especially if you leave the confines of a comfortable car early in the morning or late in the evening when the temperature drops.
The park is open all year round. In the winter months from 8:30 to 17:30, in the summer from 9:00 to 16:30.
Attractions Death Valley
The name of the national park speaks for itself: the harsh, hot and hell-like desert seems to be the fruit of an inflamed imagination; lifeless, ascetic and frightening place, descended from the pages of the Old Testament. And yet this place attracts travelers during their voyage across America no worse than the angelic singing of the sirens of Odysseus. What for? To find one of the wonders of nature, the geological end of the world, the desert of death.
Death Valley National Park – the largest in the continental United States, covers an unimaginable area: more than 5 thousand square miles, including valleys and mountains in the north. This natural playground features singing sand dunes, a mosaic of marble canyons, boulders appearing out of nowhere in the midst of a sun-scorched desert, extinct volcano craters, palm oases, and a host of rare flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world.
The valley stretches about 140 miles from north to south and 10 to 20 miles wide, bordering the Panamint chain in the west and the Amargosa range in the east. The stone formations that can be seen today in the national park were created about 500 million years ago. These unique statues can only be seen and touched here today; all the other blocks, similar in age and structure, scattered around our planet, have long gone underground. Limestone and sandstone were once the bedrock of the seabed until, due to the movement of the plates of the old Earth, they came to the surface.
Another attraction of Death Valley is the Timbisha Indian tribe (Timbisha, “stone paint”), who moved here about a thousand years ago. Several families of this tribe still live in the valley around Furnace Creek. In the Grapevine Canyon, not far from Scotty’s castle, another Indian village, Maahunu, has been preserved, in which no one lives now.
