Most visitors to Death Valley stick to the popular locations situated in the park's low elevation valleys, like Badwater Basin (-282 feet below sea level), Zabriskie Point, or the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. High mountains ring those landscapes, with, for example, the Panamint Mountains rising more than 11,000 feet above Badwater Basin down below. With a few roads and trails leading to the higher reaches of the park, a totally different experience awaits, with dense forests, cool temperatures (including ice and snow in the winter), expansive vistas, and an entirely different set of plant communities to explore. If you are planning a trip to Death Valley, you may be interested in our ebook, Desert Paradise: The Landscape Photographer’s Guide to Death Valley National Park.
