Death Valley National Park

Death Valley is the largest national park in the contiguous United States, holding the hottest reliably recorded temperature on Earth (134 degrees in 1913) and North America's lowest point at Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level. The Timbisha Shoshone people have lived here for centuries, and the 1849 gold seekers who gave the valley its name barely survived it.

Walk the Badwater salt flats, play on the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, and drive to Zabriskie Point and Dante's View. For a challenge, climb Telescope Peak, a 14-mile round trip rising 11,043 feet above the valley floor.