Originally published March 30, 2008 at 12:00 AM | Page modified March 30, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Early spring, late fall are best times to visit Death Valley
Hottest. Lowest. Driest. Leaving Death Valley at that, however, is like describing chocolate as brown. You have to taste this storied slice of the California desert to understand its calling.
The Sacramento Bee
JANET FULLWOOD / MCT
The Mesquite Flat Dunes near Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley National Park are one place visitors don't need to be concerned about leaving tracks.
If you go
Death Valley
Information
Death Valley was given its name by a group of pioneers dubbed the "Lost 49ers," who were stranded there in the winter of 1849-50. Only one of them died, but they all expected to die.
Death Valley was made a national monument in 1933 and a national park in 1994. About 1.2 million people a year visit the 3.3 million-acre preserve. The entry fee of $20 per vehicle is good for a week.
The Furnace Creek Visitor Center and Museum is open year-round from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Numerous interpretive walks and talks given by park rangers are offered daily; you can pick up a schedule at the visitor center. Restaurants, gasoline and supplies are available inside the park at Furnace Creek Village, Stovepipe Wells and Panamint Springs.
Lodging
Motel accommodations are available at Stovepipe Wells (760-786-2387), Furnace Creek Ranch (760-786-2345; www.furnacecreekresort.com) and Panamint Springs (775-482-7680; www.deathvalley.com). The four-star Furnace Creek Inn is open from mid-October to mid-May (760-786-2345; www.furnacecreekresort.com).
Lodging outside the park is available in most towns along highways 395 and 178 in California and Highway 95 in Nevada.
Of the park's nine campgrounds, four are open all year, the rest October through April. For reservations: 877- 444-6777 or www.recreation.gov.
Wildflower updates
Some wildflowers have already peaked, with acres of golden-yellow blooms, but bloom varies depending on temperatures and rainfall and continues into April at higher elevations. Updates are available on the park Web site, www.nps.gov/deva, and at www.desertusa.com/wildflo.
General
For general information, www.nps.gov/deva or 760-786-3200.
The Sacramento Bee and The Seattle Times
DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK — Hottest. Lowest. Driest. Leaving Death Valley at that, however, is like describing chocolate as brown. You have to taste this storied slice of the California desert to understand its calling. Taste it with your eyes, your skin, your ears, your mind.
For the eyes, there are sights you'll see nowhere else on the planet: salt-crusted badlands 200 feet below sea level, walled in by mountains reaching more than 11,000 feet high. Sand dunes, marble canyons, volcanic craters, dirt tracks leading to ruined mines.
Some of the geologic formations — the sea-green and violet pinnacles of Artist's Palette, for example, or the striated sandstone ridges at Zabriskie Point — are so one-of-a-kind they'll stay forever wedged in your mind. Nor will you forget the way that, at dawn, the sun creeps in like a paintbrush, washing the valley with color, one crenelated mountain wall at a time.
In summer, when most tourists come ("That's when most people have vacation time," a park ranger shrugged when I asked why), the heat is like an anvil, pressing down on everything, all the time. It won't let you up, day or night, even for a minute. Daytime highs of 120 degrees are common; at night it seldom dips below 90. The tanks of car-radiator water strategically located alongside the park's steepest roads weren't put there just for fun.
Early spring and late fall are good times to visit, with cool nights and tolerably warm days. Or visit in winter when temperatures are pleasant — low 60s in the daytime, low 40s at night
For the ears, Death Valley has something most of us don't often experience: silence. Dead, absolute silence — or at least, the absence of man-made sound. Some visitors are frightened by this. They're the ones you see getting out of their cars and standing there with the door open and the radio on, terrified of solitude.
Far better to embrace it. Cellphones don't work here, and the few so-called Internet "hot spots" don't work so hot. But being off the grid has its advantages. It gives you time to think, for one thing. And there's lots to contemplate in Death Valley, especially in terms of those who came before.
The Timbisha Shoshone claimed the valley first, only to be pushed out by pioneers, gold seekers and borax entrepreneurs. Eccentrics loomed large. One who left an indelible mark was Walter Scott, a stunt rider in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show who conned a wealthy Chicago businessman into building him a castle — Scotty's Castle, now a tourist attraction — in this unlikely spot.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
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