Death Valley (Death Valley) - a huge desert in the southwest of the US, located on the border of the states of California and Nevada - the lowest, the hottest and the driest place in North America. They travel here for the sake of unearthly landscapes: cracked, covered with salt crust, canyons and sand dunes, contrasting with high snow-capped mountains. A lot of routes have been laid in the national park: both bicycle and pedestrian.

How to get here

Public transport to the Valley of Death does not go, although in Las Vegas you can buy a ticket for the charter bus of one of the city's travel agencies. The most convenient way to get to the national park is by a rented car from Las Vegas (about 200 km).

Almost all roads leading to the Valley of Death, guarantee fantastic views. For example, trails from the west or north of US-95 (Nevada) or I-15 (California) are similar to the landscapes of Argentine Patagonia or distant Mongolia. But a trip to the valley through the Panamint Springs, along the highway Hwy 190, gives a breathtaking panorama of the Sierra Nevada.

Gasoline, diesel and any type of fuel is quite expensive in the park, so it's better to fill the full bank in advance. In Fernis Creek there is an information office, it is about 110 miles (2, 5-3 hours) from Baker and 145 miles (3-3, 5 hours) from Las Vegas.

The climate of the Death Valley

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 there are frequent prolonged heavy rains. 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 the Valley of Death falls on the cold winter months and spring, when the wild vegetation of this region blossoms in all its glory. From the end of March and around the end of April, all the hotels can be booked for the next hundred miles, as everyone is eager to see Scotty's Castle, especially luxurious at this time of year.

In summer, the Death Valley is empty, although some European travelers also test themselves for strength, coming to the devilishly hot desert. Of course, with a car with a good air conditioning, theoretically ride through the Valley of Death, you can, especially if you leave the comfort of the 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 09: 00-16: 30.

Entertainment, excursions and attractions of the Valley of Death

The name of the national park speaks for itself: a harsh, hot and desert-like desert seems the fruit of an inflamed imagination; A 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 wilderness of death.

The Valley of Death National Park - the largest in the continental US, covers an unimaginable space: more than 5 thousand square miles, including valleys and mountains in the north. On this natural playground, you can find singing sand dunes, a mosaic of marble canyons, suddenly appearing blocks of stones in the middle of the sun-scorched desert, extinct volcano craters, palm oases and a lot of rare representatives of flora and fauna that are not found anywhere else in the world. @

The valley stretches about 140 miles from north to south and 10-20 miles wide, in the west bordering the Panamint chain, and in the east - with the Amargosa ridge. Stone formations, which can now be seen in the National Park, were created about 500 million years ago. These unique statues can now be seen and felt only here, all the other blocks, similar in age and structure, scattered over our planet, have long since disappeared underground. Limestone and sandstone were once the base of the seabed, until due to the movement of the plates of the old lady-Earth did not come to the surface.

Another landmark of the Valley of Death is the Timbish Indian tribe ("stone paint"), who moved here about a thousand years ago. Several families of this tribe still live in a valley in the vicinity of Furnace Creek. In the Grapevine Canyon, near the castle of Scotty, there is another Indian village, Maahunu, in which no one lives now.