• Hiking. There are numerous trails within the park, ranging in difficulty from short loops to overnight, mountainous treks. Always bring sufficient water when hiking in Death Valley; the heat can kill.
• Photography. The odd geologic formations in the park are great for early morning and late evening photography, although during the day the harsh sun tends to wash out most photographs. During March and April the wildflowers within the valley bloom, making it a particularly photogenic time of year.
• Stargazing. The clear desert air, scarcity of clouds, and and lack of nearby light pollution makes Death Valley an ideal spot for stargazing. Ideally come during a new moon to fully appreciate the darkness of the night sky.
• Four-wheel driving. Death Valley has numerous high-clearance roads that offer a challenge for four-wheel drive enthusiasts. Driving off-road is not permitted.
• Bicycling. Bicycles are allowed on all roads in the park, including the many rough, trail-like backcountry roads that attract four-wheel drive enthusiasts. As with motor vehicles, riding off-road is not permitted.
• Scotty's Castle Tours. Tours of the home of an eccentric resident of Death Valley are offered daily from 9:00 AM until 5:00 PM, departing at least once an hour and lasting for fifty minutes. Costs are $11 per person (discounts for seniors and children) and there may be a wait for tickets, so try to purchase them several hours in advance of your preferred tour time. Note that tickets are sold on a first-come, first-served basis.
• Badwater ultramarathon. Only for the truly insane, the 135 mile course from Badwater (elevation -282 feet) to the Mt. Whitney trailhead (elevation 8360 feet) is billed as the world's toughest race. Adding to the difficulty, the race is held annually during July, the hottest month of the year. In 2004, 72 people toed the starting line, and 57 battered, burned, and exhausted souls officially finished by crossing the finish line within 60 hours (the course record is just over 25 hours). For those with a death wish, more info can be found at www.badwaterultra.com.

Death Valley and Furnace Creek

• Artist Drive. The rocks within this section of the park have been stained a myriad of colors by minerals within, creating a view that resembles an artist's palette.
• Badwater. At 282 feet below sea level, it's the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere. A boardwalk and signs provide info on the local environment, and a trail leads out onto the salt flats.

• Dante's View. Spectacular view from an overlook just a mile or two away from Badwater, but 4000 feet taller. The road to Dante's View is a bit long, but the view is worth it. If you are towing a trailer, a parking lot is provided for you to leave your trailer behind before ascending the most difficult part of the road to Dante's View.
• Devil's Cornfield
• Devil's Golf Course. A bizarre landscape consisting of a vast field of salt crystals. Please admire these carefully! A slight touch can break the crystals, which often take years to re-form.
• Echo Canyon4WD road just east of Furnace Creek.
• Mustard Canyon. A popular hike located just north of Furnace Creek through a brilliantly-colored canyon. The best view is from the very end of the trail, which requires traversing through some narrow canyon walls and over ladders. Star Wars fans may recognize this place as Jawa hideouts from Episode 3.
• Mushroom Rock. This oddly shaped rock is located on the road south of Furnace Creek.
• Natural Bridge. Travel south from Furnace Creek. Natural Bridge is just east of the main road via a dirt road. This natural bridge in a narrow canyon was created when erosion managed to undercut a section of the stream bed and eventually create a bridge well above the bottom of the canyon.
• Salt Creek. Travel north from Furnace Creek. Salt Creek is about two miles west of the main road via an easy dirt road. This place is great. Long ago Death Valley was a lake with fish in it; as the lake dried up and salinity increased the fish evolved to cope. Now they are restricted to a short, salty creek which springs up out of the desert, flows for a few hundred yards, and then disappears back into the sand.
• Visitor Center And Museum. At Furnace Creek. When visiting Death Valley, start here and you may discover that some sight you hadn't been interested in turns out to really interest you. Or just figure out which of these many places you should really visit.
• Zabriskie Point. Famous viewpoint loved by photographers just east of Furnace Creek. View overlooks interesting weathered canyons. View is a two minute walk from the parking lot.

Stovepipe Wells and Vicinity

• Aguereberry Point
• Amargosa Opera House
• Cottonwood Canyon
• Darwin Falls. A 15 foot waterfall that is particularly interesting in Spring. Traveling west of Panamint Springs on SR 190, turn left onto a dirt road that goes up a wash just before SR 190 starts climbing uphill. After about half a mile of dirt, gravel and rocks, there is a small parking lot. From the parking lot, hike about half a mile to a mile further into the canyon. Since this is the drinking water supply for Panamint Springs, please do not jump in, no matter how tempting it is.
• Death Valley Buttes
• Greenwater Ruins
• Grotto Canyon
• Marble Canyon. A popular hiking destination. While accessible only by a long, sandy road followed by a techincal rock crawl through a wash, this hike is worth the headache (or fun) of getting to the base of the trail. Before you go, consult rangers about the location of various petrogylphs along the canyon walls. Though some have been vandalized recently, many are in pristine condition.
• Mosaic Canyon. This popular hike in the center of the park winds through a narrow, marbled canyon. Some climbing and scaling of slick marbled rock is required.
• Sand Dunes. Near Stovepipe Wells. Most people think sand dunes are common in the desert. They aren't. There are two interesting areas of sand dunes in Death Valley. The largest is Eureka Dunes, accessible only to adventurous backcountry folks. This smaller set of dunes near Stovepipe Wells is still quite impressive.
• Stovepipe Well

Scotty's Castle and Vicinity

• Scotty's Castle (Death Valley Ranch). A strange story about the creation of elaborate mansion in the valley involving sickness, fraud, and tall tales.
• Titus Canyon. An unimproved road into Death Valley that begins just west of Beatty (the road to Titus canyon heads north from the normal paved route from Beatty into Death Valley). Titus canyon is narrow, deep and spectacular. Due to narrowness, parts of this road are one-way, so you really need to start from the east end of the road. You don't need an off-road vehicle for this, normal cars should do fine, but don't bring the RV.
• Ubehebe Crater. Located in the northern part of the park near Scotty's Castle, this giant crater was formed by volcanic activity. Walking trails lead into and around the crater, but be warned - going down into the crater is a difficult undertaking, and it may be best to enjoy the view from the top.

Backcountry Sights

• Barker Ranch. Charles Manson and his followers were captured here in 1969. The backcountry road up - which includes several rock falls - will make you wonder how Charles Manson got a school bus through. Many visitors who make the difficult trek stay overnight in the cabin here.
• Charcoal Kilns
• Crankshaft Junction
• Desolation Canyon. Because it is not marked from the road, and not well marked on the map, a hike through this canyon offers solitude even beyond that of what is a very quiet park to begin with. The canyon isn't much to look at for the first 1/2 mile of the hike from the parking area, but beyond that, there is much to explore.
• Emigrant Canyon
• Eureka Sand Dunes. Tucked away in the north part of the park, accessible only by tens of miles of dirt road, these are the second tallest dunes in the United States. Don't let their out-of-the-way location deter you from visiting, however. The solitude only adds to the otherworldliness of the wind-swept sands, the highly rare Eureka Grass blades grasping for life in the dry mounds, and the panoramic view of the colorful Last Chance and Saline Ranges which flank the dunes on either side.
• Ibex Dunes. Well off the beaten path in the Southern end of the park, these are some of the most remote sand dunes in the American West. Mountains flank the dunes to the west and east, making both sunrise and sunset an event. The backcountry road here is rutted with arroyos, and like so many other places in the park, requires a four-wheel drive.

• Pleasant Canyon and South Park Canyon 4wd Loop. The South Park Canyon portion near the Panamint Valley should be attempted only by experienced drivers with high clearance vehicles.
• Racetrack Playa. As with many points of interest within the park, this one is not easily accessible. The main route consists of 27 miles of dirt road, beginning at the Ubehebe Crater in the northern part of the park. However, the effort is well-rewarded with a site of twilight-zone proportions. The Plestiocene-era lake bed, nearly three miles long and a mile wide, is so flat that it once used as a landing strip for drug smugglers. But the Racetrack is most famous for its "moving rocks": boulders whose erratic tracks remain visible for years. Though their movement has been tracked with GPS, no adequate explanation for it has been found. In the spring months, brine shrimp - which hibernate when the water dries up, only to emerge months or even years later - are sometimes visible in the muddy puddles here.
• Tea Kettle Junction. Located in the backcountry near the Racetrack Playa, this signpost is decorated with numerous tea kettles and makes for a rather odd sight in the vast desert.
• Telescope Peak. Highest point in the park at 11,049 feet.

By air

McCarran International Airport (IATA: LAS) [2] in Las Vegas is the closest commercial airport to Death Valley.

There are also two small airstrips within the park for private plane access.

By train

The nearest city with an Amtrak station is Barstow, which is served by the Southwest Chief [3] Chicago - Los Angeles route.

By car

From Las Vegas or Barstow you will need to rent a car as there is no public transportation to and from the park. The standard highway route to access the park is through CA 190, both from the east and the west. Details for this and other more adventurous ways in and out of the park are listed below.

From the East:

• Take CA 190 west from Death Valley Junction 20 miles into the park.
• From US 95 in Nevada, take NV 374 west from Beatty 19 miles into the Valley.

From the West:

• Going north on US 395 take CA 190 east from Olancha, through Panamint Springs and over Towne Pass (elevation 4956 feet). This road is steep and narrow along some sections and is slow going for vehicles pulling trailers.
• Going south on US 395 take CA 136 east from Lone Pine to CA 190 east through Panamint Springs and proceed as above.

From the North:

• From US 95 in Nevada, take NV 267 west from Scotty's Junction 26 miles towards Scotty's Castle.

When traveling from Las Vegas, proceed north on US 95 to Lathrop Wells. Then proceed south on NV 373 for 23 miles to Death Valley Junction. Then proceed west on CA 190 for 20 miles to the park entrance.

Many other more adventurous routes into the park are also available particularly for high clearance and 4x4 vehicles. The route in from the Eureka Dunes in the north is notable along with the route from the Panamint Valley through Emigrant Pass from the southwest and the southern route on CA 178 west from Shoshone.

From the South:

• From I-15 take the exit for CA 127 when you reach the tiny town of Baker. Proceed north on CA 127 for 56 miles to the microscopic town of Shoshone. Just one mile north of Shoshone is the turnoff for CA 178 which leads you into the Park.
• If you want to go to Badwater go west on CA 178 for 56 more miles. The road will cease to be CA 178 after several miles and after that the condition deteriorates quickly. The road is pretty bad at times for many miles and can't be driven at high speeds. The condition eventually becomes better a few miles south of Badwater. Avoid using this route at night if possible.
• If you don't want to take the shortcut to Badwater you can continue north on CA 127 for 27 miles when it meets with CA 190 and enter the park from there.

Note: Some roads in the park can occasionally be snowed in at the passes and may require chains in the winter. Please reference the Death Valley Morning Report for current weather and road conditions.

Note on routes: "CA 127" means "California State Route 127" and "NV 373" means "Nevada State Route 373". The signs for each state are different. Nevada has a white shape of the state with black numbers while California's signs are green with white numbers.

A car is highly recommended although during the more temperate seasons such as the fall and spring a nice bike ride may be in order. But be forewarned that climatic conditions in the park can be extreme so always check the Death Valley Weather forecast prior to entering and plan your activities accordingly.

It is also important to note that this and most other weather forecasts for the park refer to locations within the low altitude portion of the park and weather conditions at higher elevations can be dramatically different.

The paved roads within the park are well-maintained and accessible to vehicles of all kind, but dirt roads (with the exception of the west side around around the Badwater Salt Flats) are rough, difficult tracks that generally require a vehicle with moderately high clearance and (preferably) four-wheel drive. Expect excessive washboarding, erosion, large rocks, and uneven surfaces when traveling on the park's dirt roads.

• Furnace Creek Visitor's Center
• Furnace Creek Inn Gift Shop
• Furnace Creek Ranch General Store
• Borax Museum
• Stovepipe Wells General Store
• Scotty's Castle Gift Shop

Gas

Although you can get gas in the park it typically costs up to a dollar more per gallon than outside the park. It is recommended to fuel up right outside the park before coming in. But once in the park, don't try to squeak out with just enough gas as the results can be fatal if you are stuck in the wilderness or just plain costly if you need to get gas brought to you by a tow truck.

• Furnace Creek Gas Station, 8am-6pm (24 hours a day by credit card) on SR 190
• Stovepipe Wells Gas Station, 8am-6pm on SR 190 (24 hours a day by credit card, regular gas only, usually cheapest in Death Valley proper)
• Scotty's Castle Gas Station, 7am-6pm on SR 267 (Currently Closed, Call NPS for More Information)

• Furnace Creek Inn Dining Room. The only upscale restaurant in Death Valley, very elegant, with a somewhat laid back dress code. Closed for summer season. Reservations are required for dinner and Sunday brunch. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is served. Call 760-786-2345 for reservations.
• 49'er Cafe. Located in Furnace Creek Ranch, this restaurant is less upscale than the Furnace Creek Inn or the Wrangler Steakhouse, but offers decent food with dinner entrees starting around $10.
• Wrangler Buffet. Located in Furnace Creek Ranch at the ranch, the buffet is served daily for breakfast and lunch and offers a variety of hot and cold items.
• Wrangler Steakhouse. Located in Furnace Creek Ranch, this upscale restaurant offers steaks and other entrees starting around $25. Open for dinner only.
• Stovepipe Wells. Restaurant and convenience store.

• Corkscrew Saloon. Located in Furnace Creek Ranch and providing a cowboy atmosphere, the drink prices are reasonable ($5 for a beer) and the crowd combines retired tourists with Death Valley locals, creating an interesting mix.