Death Valley National Park is located on the border of California and Nevada, and is globally recognized as one of the most extreme weather locations on earth. This area of the Mohave Desert is most closely compatible to Afghanistan in it’s weather patterns, and boasts having recorded the hottest air temperature recorded at more than 130 degrees at Furnace Creek. While this may appear as though the area is completely without the ability to tour, nothing is further from the truth. While Death Valley does get uncomfortable in the high summer, at that point we will generally switch to shorter times spent outdoors exploring and more sightseeing. This allows us to remain in the climate controlled vans for longer periods and to only spend short periods outside in the actual heat. By slightly changing the tone of the trip during the most extreme times of year, we have the ability to provide fun tours all year long.
Our tour of Death Valley leaves from Las Vegas, and takes only a few short hours to get to the park. Once there, we will provide stops at some of the most interesting areas of the park including the Borax Museum (there was once an active borax mining operation on the site) and Badwater Basin. You will see wide expanses of salt-crusted ground which used to be a lake, where you will actually feel as though you are on the bottom of the ocean as you observe nothing as far as you can see. Within only a few miles you will see plants and animals that have adapted to life in the area, and the entire landscape changes. During certain times of year you may be treated to fields of wildflowers, or other variations on the desert that change with the seasons. All in all Death Valley is one of the most interesting and rewarding single day tours that we offer, as it presents an area that is completely unlike anything that many visitors have ever seen before. To go to see a landscape that has been completely transformed over thousands of years of oppressive sun and heat is an experience that you will not forget any time soon, and to say that you stood on the ground that is the lowest point below sea level in the United States is even better!
A trip to a southwestern national park is going to bring different types of experiences, and depending on your interests will be something that you may have never seen before. Other nearby parks like Zion and Bryce offer their own features and beauty, but for people who want to experience something completely different give Death Valley a try. It is completely worth spending a day away from Las Vegas, and you will get to experience first hand an area that has been the thing of legends for hundreds of years. They did not name it Death Valley for nothing, and you can say you went to the hottest place on earth and lived to tell the tale!