20 places to see in Death Valley before you die

Death Valley is a land of extremes. It holds the world record for the highest air temperature recorded (134 degrees) and has seen entire years without rain. It’s also home to otherworldly sand dunes, surreal salt flats, and colorful badlands.

Wondering where to start your exploration of the vast Death Valley National Park? Here are 20 sights in and near the park, both natural and man-made, that will help you appreciate the region’s striking landscape and pioneer past.

Ballerina Marta Becket refurbished this theater in 1967 and performed a one-woman show here for more than 40 years. She was also an artist: She painted a mural depicting an audience on the walls to ensure she always had a “full house.” Now, the theater hosts plays and concerts on weekends October through May. Twice-daily tours are available (adults, $15), and the hotel still welcomes guests.

The 9-mile, one-way Artists Drive highlights brilliant colors created by natural pigments, volcanic ash, and mineral oxidation in ancient, eroded sediments on the face of the Black Mountains. About halfway through the drive, you’ll reach Artists Palette, where you can immerse yourself even more in the landscape on a 0.4-mile hike.

At 282 feet below sea level, Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America. For a perspective of just how low this is, look across Badwater Road and search the mountain face for white letters marking sea level. Walk out onto the salt flats to find a mosaic of crystalline shapes formed by the evaporation of rare floodwaters.

The most famous of all the valley viewpoints, Dantes View is best experienced in the cooler morning before the sun is high in the sky. Directly below, you’ll see Badwater Basin and miles of salt flats, while across the valley, the Panamint Range’s sheer wall forms an imposing (and often snow-covered) barrier.

The highlight of this moderate 2-mile round-trip hike is a 20-foot waterfall. A signed trail begins in a dry wash and continues through a narrow canyon to the falls. The spring-fed desert oasis is popular with migratory birds and hikers alike. Be prepared to cross streams and climb boulders. Access is by dirt road.

As ancient lakes evaporated, they left behind salt and gravel deposits on the valley floor—some more than 1,000 feet deep—that cover the 200-square-mile Devils Golf Course. While not an actual golf course, of course, the name comes from a 1930s National Park Service guidebook that claimed, “Only the devil could play golf on such a surface.”

Visit Furnace Creek Visitors Center for up-to-date information on roads and trails, hiking and backcountry permits, ranger programs, and a gift shop. The center also has museum, a relief map of the park, shaded picnic structures, and a large outdoor thermometer—perfect for a photo op.

The trails at this hiking spot lead to 3 scenic areas: Red Cathedral, a 3-mile round-trip to a natural amphitheater; Manly Beacon, a 2.7-mile round-trip to the clay pinnacle named for a pioneer who led lost emigrants out of Death Valley; and Gower Gulch, a 4.3-mile loop through tight canyons and colorful badlands. Ranger talks and tours are available.

A paved footpath leads past the refinery, a set of rare mule-team wagons, and outlying buildings used to process borax in the 1880s. The famous 20-Mule Teams transported the minerals from this site 165 miles over rugged desert to the town of Mojave.

The sinuous contours of the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes contrast with the sharp-edged mountains to the east and west. The tallest dunes, at 100 feet, are easy to access and are the most visited in the park. Mountain barriers combined with opposing winds prevent these deposits of eroded quartz from moving cross-country.

This dry playa, the remains of a 10,000-year-old lake, is roughly shaped like a racetrack. It’s the setting for an interesting phenomenon where rocks slowly move across the south end of the lakebed, leaving long, faint tracks. Do not drive onto the playa, walk on the playa when it is wet, or disturb or deface the rocks. High-clearance vehicles are required to access this area.

This town enjoyed a few prosperous years following a nearby gold discovery, bustling with as many as 10,000 people at its peak in 1907. A few stone-and-concrete ruins, the old railroad depot, and a structure of glass bottles embedded in mortar are all that remain. Ghostly sculptures depicting The Last Supper were added in 1984, offering an eerie complement to the former boomtown.

Freshwater Lake Manly covered this area more than 10,000 years ago. This creek is now home to the rare Salt Creek pupfish (Cyprinodon salinus), which has adapted to the heat, salinity, and intermittent scarcity of water in its present environment. In spring, schools of the fish can be seen from a boardwalk trail that parallels the creek.

This Spanish-Moorish–style mansion (formally named Death Valley Ranch) was intended as millionaire Albert Johnson’s winter home. Its popular name comes from Johnson’s friend Walter Scott claiming the “castle” as his domain. The property is closed due to a 2015 flood and a 2021 fire. However, the Death Valley National History Association offers limited flood-recovery tours in winter.

Teapots and kettles have decorated this remote junction sign for years. Some pots have inscriptions or contain paper messages. Photographing this piece of folk art is now a rite of passage for many Death Valley visitors heading to Racetrack Valley. High-clearance vehicles are required to access this area.

At 11,049 feet, Telescope Peak is the park’s highest point. From the summit, you can see the highest (Mount Whitney) and the lowest (Badwater Basin) spots in the contiguous United States. This difficult 14-mile round-trip trail has an elevation gain of 3,000 feet. Access is by a 4x4 road and a hiking trail.

A National Natural Landmark, these tufa (calcium carbonate) spires may be familiar thanks to their appearances in commercials, television shows, and films such as Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. The towering formations, some reaching 140 feet high, were once known as Cathedral City. Access is by a dirt road.

A volcanic explosion more than 800 years ago left this crater, nearly a half-mile wide and 600 feet deep. Oxidizing ores give orange tints to the dark volcanic ash of the crater’s eastern walls. A 1.5-mile hiking trail circles the rim, and a spur trail continues half a mile to the smaller, younger crater, Little Hebe.

These beehive-shaped structures from 1877, each 30 feet in diameter and about 25 feet tall, were built to produce charcoal from the surrounding piñon pine forest. Enter the kilns for amazing acoustics and the lingering smell of smoke from over a century ago. Access is by dirt road.

This lookout features the strata of Furnace Creek Badlands, eroded yellow hills that are the remains of a lakebed whose sediments were deposited 5 to 10 million years ago. At sunrise, the hills in the foreground are highlighted with gold tones and shadows, while the mountains across the valley subtly change from pink to blue-gray.