Death Valley is a long, low depression east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the most eastern part of California at the border to Nevada. From an elevation of about 3000 feet at the north end, the land slopes down steadily and for 70 miles the floor is below sea level, reaching a low point of -282 feet at Badwater, the lowest point in the Western hemisphere. The depth of the depression is partly responsible for the extreme high temperatures, which can exceed 130°F in summer. The National Park covers 3 million acres, making it the largest in the US outside Alaska. Nearly 550 square miles are below sea level.

There are a lot of great places to visit, some of them are shown below. If you want to explore all of them, you need to stay a couple of days, have a high-clearance car and be prepared to hike a few miles per day. The best time to visit is March and April, afterwards it will be too hot to hike some of the trails and canyons.