You may expect Death Valley National Park in California to be hot – but it is also utterly spectacular.
Las Vegas to Dante’s View
Coming the back way from Las Vegas may have been a navigational error, but it works out for the best at Dante’s View.
The drive up until this point has been impressive in an American desert scenery kind of way. The landscape is parched, rubbly and seemingly never-ending. But then the climb begins, up to one of those car parks that the American National Parks Service seemingly provides at every possible lookout.
The view from Dante’s View
It’s only once out of the car and approaching the edge that the specialness of Dante’s View becomes apparent. Breathtaking is a horrible cliché, but in this case it is genuine and offered by someone who has been lucky enough to see a lot of great views in his time. It is properly, eye-poppingly staggering.
Dante’s View is 1,669 metres above sea level, and looks down into Death Valley, which is below sea level. On the other side is another mountain range, rising steeply and thoroughly intimidating. The valley itself, though, is a streak of dazzling white – all sandy sediment built up over centuries, and reflecting the scorching sun back at the world.
The temperature in Badwater Basin
By the time we get down to the valley floor, there’s a huge temperature difference. Up at Dante’s View, it was tolerably warm. Down at Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, it is searingly hot. It can be this way for months – in summer, the few hardy residents don’t expect to see the temperature drop below 40 degrees Celsius very often. Indeed, the official highest temperature ever recorded was chalked up here. On July 10, 1913, the thermometer hit a monstrous 56.7 degrees Celsius.
Zabriskie Point and Artists’ Drive
The brutality of Death Valley is part of its appeal. But the landscapes are amongst the most impressive on the planet. Zabriskie Point has weirdly smooth, sulphur-coloured mountainsides spreading out like gnarled fingers; Artists’ Drive heads through multi-coloured rock formations and canyons where minerals have given a near-rainbow effect.
The National Park – the largest in the United States outside Alaska – also has sprawling sand dunes and weird art-filled ghost towns.
Crossing Death Valley National Park
But it’s in crossing the park from east to west that you gain something more important than a mere collection of pretty darned awesome sights. The drive is exhilarating and visually staggering all the way through. It’s completely detached from the stereotypical images of California, with the black tar road cutting through startlingly bleak surroundings, then climbing around mountains and dropping back down again.
The mountain ranges of inland California
It’s mountain range after mountain range, folded up, then dipping dramatically into deep valleys. There is nothing gentle about it at all, and suddenly there comes a realisation – this isn’t just the story in Death Valley National Park, or even eastern California – it’s the story of the whole American West.
The back half of the continent is a geological warzone – tectonics have crunched and ripped away to create a landscape that jags up and down like a shocked heart rate monitor. It’s what makes it so consistently spectacular to drive around.
Seeing the Sierra Nevada
But then, after the penultimate range is scaled comes a sight that almost equal’s Dante’s View. It’s the Sierra Nevada, it’s snow-topped, and it looks suspiciously like the Wall in Game of Thrones.
Mt Whitney, the highest point in the 48 contiguous US states lies right in front – and it’s only 85 miles away from Badwater Basin. That, alone, should give an idea of just how incredible this part of the world is.
