Sand dunes are carved into shapes of staggering beauty, especially striking at dawn and dusk. Colorful cliffs stand above endless flats of creosote bush. More than 900 species of plants have been identified within the park, and nights come alive to the scurrying of small mammals. Coyotes live here with gray and kit foxes, bobcats, jackrabbits, desert tortoises and a variety of bats and birds, lizards and snakes. Desert bighorn sheep live in the higher elevations where you can find a dry forest of pinyon, juniper, mountain mahogany and a few bristlecone pines.
Wildflowers bloom in spectacular variety when enough rain falls.
Ubehebe Crater opens 2,400 feet in diameter where a volcano erupted roughly 1,000 years ago. You are free to hike the Wilderness, limited only by your ability to carry water and your courage, but camping is currently allowed only in designated locations. For sale at Furnace Creek Visitors Center is a worthy booklet, Getting Around in the Death Valley Backcountry, with detailed information on hikes. From Olancha, CA, on US 395, take State Highway 190 east approximately 110 miles to the visitors center. DeLorme's Southern and Central California Atlas and Gazetteer shows the area in fair detail.