Death Valley National Park

Death Valley National Park is the largest national park outside Alaska, 3.4 million acres of desert on the California–Nevada border and the homeland of the Timbisha Shoshone. Its floor reaches 282 feet below sea level at Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America. It holds the hottest air temperature on record: 134°F at Furnace Creek on 10 July 1913.

In 2025 the park had 1,320,134 recreation visits, most of them in spring. Every figure below is from the Park Service's own pages and NOAA's normals for Furnace Creek, checked on 26 October 2026.

What does a car from abroad pay at the card-only kiosks?

Death Valley costs a visitor from abroad $30 per car for seven days, the same as a US resident. It is not one of the eleven national parks with the $100 surcharge for non-residents, so two adults from abroad in one car pay $30. A motorcycle pays $25, and someone on foot or on a bike $15; children under 16 pay nothing.

The park takes no cash. Passes are sold by card at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, the Stovepipe Wells ranger station, kiosks at Zabriskie Point, Badwater Basin, Hell's Gate and Ryan, and the campgrounds. Drivers arriving by a dirt road should buy the pass on Recreation.gov beforehand and display a printed copy. The $250 non-resident America the Beautiful pass covers the park too, and our guide to national park fees for international visitors has the arithmetic.

Which roads did the October storm close?

Several Death Valley roads were damaged when a storm flooded parts of the park on 22 October 2026. On the Park Service's road page, read between 25 October and 5 November 2026:

• Ubehebe Road was listed as closed on 25 October 2026, with no access to Ubehebe Crater, and was no longer named on the page from 30 October. The road to the Racetrack starts at the crater, so confirm with the park on 760-786-3200 before driving there.
• The Beatty Cut-off and Westside Road were listed as closed after the storm, and neither was named on the page updated on 1 November.
• Bonnie Clare Road, Cottonwood and Marble Roads and Hunter Mountain Road were listed as closed on that page.
• Lower Wildrose Road is washed out in places and closed to vehicles over 25 feet.
• Titus Canyon Road has been closed since 2 October 2026 for repairs expected to run to about May 2027.
• Darwin Falls road is likely to stay closed until summer 2027.
• Scotty's Castle has been closed for ten years, with no reopening date.

Badwater Road, Artists Drive, Dantes View Road and Highway 190 were not listed as closed. The southern 45 miles of Badwater Road reopened on 31 January 2026 after five months shut, with missing pavement and soft shoulders still in places. The park is still repairing damage from the floods of 2022, 2023 and 2025, so check the road report on the day.

Which sights near Furnace Creek fit a first day?

Death Valley's best-known sights lie along Badwater Road and Highway 190 near Furnace Creek, and most need only a short walk. Distances are round trip, from the Park Service.

Zabriskie Point is the most popular viewpoint in the park, looking over yellow badlands to Manly Beacon. Dantes View stands 5,575 feet above Badwater Basin. Artists Drive and Dantes View Road are closed to vehicles over 25 feet long, trailers included, and Artists Drive's colours are best in afternoon light.

Badwater Basin's salt flats cover nearly 200 square miles, and the best salt polygons need a longer walk out onto the flat. Mosaic Canyon, near Stovepipe Wells, is a 4-mile round trip up a polished canyon to a 25-foot dryfall. The Racetrack, with its moving rocks, is at least three and a half hours each way on a road that needs four-wheel drive and high clearance. The park says standard rental cars often get flat tyres there.

How hot does Death Valley get?

Death Valley gets dangerously hot from May to September, with average July highs of 117°F at Furnace Creek and 147 days a year at or above 100°F. On the Badwater, Golden Canyon, Mesquite Dunes and Mosaic Canyon pages the Park Service prints the same warning: hiking not advised after 10 a.m. in the summer.

The table gives NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals for Furnace Creek, at 194 feet below sea level. The park calls November to March the best hiking season and does not recommend hiking at low elevations in summer at all. At Badwater in summer it advises no more than 15 minutes outside an air-conditioned car.

Heat is not the main killer, though. Most deaths in the park come from single-car rollovers on long, winding roads, so use a low gear on steep descents. In summer stay on paved roads, carry at least a gallon of water a day per person, and stay with the car if it breaks down.

Where are the three petrol stations, and which sells diesel?

Death Valley has three places to buy fuel and water: Furnace Creek, Stovepipe Wells and Panamint Springs. Furnace Creek sells petrol and diesel around the clock. Stovepipe Wells sells only 87-octane petrol, by card, 24 hours a day. Panamint Springs opens from 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Phones do not work on most park roads, and the park advises against relying on a car's GPS. Download the Park Service app for offline use before entering. No public transport reaches the park or runs inside it.

Where do you sleep: the Inn, the Ranch, Stovepipe Wells or Panamint?

Four places to stay sit inside Death Valley, all open all year, alongside nine campgrounds, of which only Furnace Creek takes reservations. The four lodgings:

• The Inn at Death Valley: a historic hotel at Furnace Creek, open since 1927, with a spring-fed pool.
• The Ranch at Death Valley: 275 rooms beside the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, with a petrol station.
• Stovepipe Wells Village: a motel, RV sites, a pool and a restaurant near the sand dunes.
• Panamint Springs Resort: lodging, camping, a restaurant and fuel in the west of the park.

Furnace Creek campground takes reservations from 15 October to 15 April, on Recreation.gov up to six months ahead. It fills to capacity most days in season. On 25 October 2026 Furnace Creek, Stovepipe Wells, Mesquite Spring and Wildrose were open, while Texas Springs and Sunset were still closed for the season and Emigrant was closed indefinitely. Beatty, 45 minutes from Furnace Creek, and Pahrump, an hour and a half, are the nearest towns outside the park.

When do wildflowers bloom below sea level and up in the mountains?

Wildflowers bloom in Death Valley at low elevations from mid-February to mid-April, and later the higher you go, into July on the mountains. A superbloom, a far larger bloom than usual, comes roughly once a decade. The most recent were in 2026, 2016, 2005 and 1998.

The 2026 bloom is over. Whether a year blooms depends on rain the winter before, so watch the park's own wildflower updates from February.

How dark is the night sky over the salt flats and dunes?

DarkSky International rates Death Valley an International Dark Sky Park at the Gold Tier, its highest rating, certified in 2013. The Park Service suggests Harmony Borax Works, the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, Badwater Basin and Father Crowley Vista Point for stargazing. Ubehebe Crater is another, but its road was closed by the storm of 22 October 2026, so check with the park before going. The park's next Dark Sky Festival runs from 5 to 7 February 2027.

How far is Death Valley from Las Vegas and Los Angeles?

Las Vegas is about 120 miles from Death Valley, around two hours through Pahrump, by the Park Service's figure. Los Angeles has no official figure; on our own routing it is about 266 miles and five and a half hours to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. The park has no street address, so set the satnav to the visitor centre and read the road signs.

The park is one of the desert parks in our guide to California, with Joshua Tree National Park further south. The Yosemite National Park guide covers the Sierra Nevada across the mountains to the west. The other national parks in California are Channel Islands National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Pinnacles National Park, Redwood National and State Parks, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and Yosemite National Park.