Author's posts
May 26 2025
The Racetrack
Deep in the remote northern wilderness of Death Valley National Park lies one of the strangest landscapes in the American desert. The Racetrack, also known as Racetrack Playa, is a broad, nearly level dry lakebed surrounded by rugged mountains and famous for rocks that appear to move across the desert floor on their own. Behind …
May 26 2025
Devil’s Golf Course
Devil’s Golf Course is one of the strangest landscapes in Death Valley National Park. Instead of rolling sand dunes or smooth white salt flats, this part of the valley floor is covered by an immense field of jagged salt formations—sharp ridges, knobs, spires, and crusts shaped by evaporation, rain, wind, and the repeated growth of …
May 26 2025
Golden Canyon
Golden Canyon is one of the best places to hike in Death Valley National Park. Beginning only a few miles south of Furnace Creek, the trail enters a maze of golden badlands, narrow washes, sculpted ridges, colorful rock layers, and dramatic formations that reveal millions of years of Death Valley’s geological history. The basic hike …
May 25 2025
Dante’s View
Dante’s View is one of the finest panoramic viewpoints in Death Valley National Park. Perched high in the Black Mountains at approximately 5,475 feet above sea level, the overlook provides a sweeping view across Badwater Basin, the salt flats of Death Valley, the Panamint Range, and some of the most dramatic elevation contrasts in the …
May 25 2025
Zabriskie Point
Zabriskie Point is one of the most famous viewpoints in Death Valley National Park, offering a sweeping look across golden badlands, deeply eroded ridges, Manly Beacon, and the distant Panamint Range. The landscape looks almost sculpted, with sharp folds and gullies carved into soft sediment by rare but powerful rainstorms. The viewpoint is especially popular …
May 25 2025
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes are the most accessible and best-known sand dunes in Death Valley National Park. Located near Stovepipe Wells along CA-190, the dunes rise in sweeping ridges and curves from an otherwise broad desert valley surrounded by rugged mountains. Although Death Valley is often imagined as an endless sea of sand, dunes cover …
May 25 2025
Badwater Basin
Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America and one of the defining landscapes of Death Valley National Park. At 282 feet below sea level, the basin spreads across the floor of Death Valley in an immense expanse of salt, mud, mineral crust, and temporary pools framed by some of the park’s highest mountains. …
May 10 2025
Kings Canyon National Park
Kings Canyon National Park Kings Canyon National Park protects some of the most dramatic landscapes in California’s Sierra Nevada, from enormous giant sequoia groves to a glacial canyon deeper than many of the better-known canyons of the American West. Located immediately north of Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon combines towering granite walls, rushing rivers, alpine …
Apr 26 2025
The Top 5 National Parks for Hot Springs Enthusiasts
Hot springs have drawn people to mineral-rich waters for thousands of years, whether for bathing, relaxation, cultural traditions, or simple curiosity about the geothermal processes occurring beneath Earth’s surface. Within the U.S. national park system, hot springs range from carefully managed historic bathhouses to remote desert soaking pools and spectacular thermal basins where the water …
Apr 20 2025
Top 5 Lodging Options in Yellowstone National Park
Staying inside Yellowstone National Park changes the entire experience. Instead of beginning and ending each day with a long drive from a gateway town, you can wake within walking distance of geysers, Yellowstone Lake, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, wildlife habitat, and some of the park’s most famous trails. Yellowstone currently has nine lodging …
