Title: Death Valley National Park - National Geographic
Headings: Death Valley National Park
Zabriskie Point
Death Valley National Park
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<p><br> Not for the faint of heart, Death Valley National Park, in California and Nevada, is hot and dry. Temperatures in the park once hit 134°F (57°C) in July 1913. Zabriskie Point, seen here, offers a spectacular view of the badlands.</p>
Zabriskie Point
Not for the faint of heart, Death Valley National Park, in California and Nevada, is hot and dry. Temperatures in the park once hit 134°F (57°C) in July 1913. Zabriskie Point, seen here, offers a spectacular view of the badlands. Photograph by Michael Melford
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Death Valley National Park
Published November 2, 2015
• 3 min read
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The largest national park south of Alaska, Death Valley is known for extremes: It is North America's driest and hottest spot (with fewer than two inches/five centimeters of rainfall annually and a record high of 134°F), and has the lowest elevation on the continent—282 feet below sea level. Even with its extremes, the park still receives nearly a million visitors each year. In 1849 emigrants bound for California's gold fields strayed into the 120-mile long basin, enduring a two-month ordeal of "hunger and thirst and an awful silence."