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Death Valley: brown rocky mountain under blue sky during daytime
Photo by Marina Šurniene on Unsplash

Best time to visit Death Valley

United States · North America

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Death Valley

Tap a month for its page

  1. Death Valley in January: good
  2. Death Valley in February: good, busy
  3. Death Valley in March: good, busy
  4. Death Valley in April: sweet spot
  5. Death Valley in May: avoid
  6. Death Valley in June: avoid
  7. Death Valley in July: avoid
  8. Death Valley in August: avoid
  9. Death Valley in September: avoid
  10. Death Valley in October: sweet spot
  11. Death Valley in November: good
  12. Death Valley in December: good
  • Sweet spot
  • Good
  • OK
  • Avoid
  • Busy
Good for
Go in Apr or Oct — 30C max, 0 rainy days. Nov is the next best.

Things to do in Death Valley

  • Badwater Basin At 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in North America is a surreal landscape of vast salt flats.
  • Zabriskie Point Famous viewpoint loved by photographers just east of Furnace Creek.
  • Telescope Peak Highest point in the park at 11,049 feet.
  • Dante's View Spectacular view from an overlook just a mile or two away from Badwater, but 4,000 ft taller.
  • Racetrack Playa As with many points of interest within the park, this one is not easily accessible.
  • Stovepipe Wells This historic marker was placed at a reliable spring in order to mark its location in harsh conditions.
  • Ubehebe Crater In the northern part of the park near Scotty's Castle, this giant crater was formed by volcanic activity.

Tours and tickets in Death Valley

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Death Valley National Park), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

MonthMax °CRain days HumiditySun h/day VerdictWhy
Jan 19° 2d 35% 8.9h good 19C max, 2 rainy days
Feb 21° 2d 29% 9.5h goodbusy busier than usual
Mar 25° 2d 26% 10.9h goodbusy busier than usual
Apr 30° 0d 17% 12.2h sweet spot 30C max, 0 rainy days
May 34° 0d 16% 13.2h avoid extreme heat: 16 days over 35C
Jun 41° 0d 12% 13.8h avoid extreme heat: 27 days over 35C
Jul 44° 0d 14% 13.7h avoid extreme heat: 31 days over 35C
Aug 42° 0d 16% 12.8h avoid extreme heat: 30 days over 35C
Sep 37° 0d 18% 11.6h avoid extreme heat: 22 days over 35C
Oct 31° 0d 19% 10.7h sweet spot 31C max, 0 rainy days
Nov 23° 1d 26% 9.2h good 23C max, 1 rainy day
Dec 19° 1d 34% 8.3h good 19C max, 1 rainy day

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at Furnace Creek: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest in February, March and July; quietest in May, September and October.

Then and now

Death Valley's December days now average 19.3°C, 4.4°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 4 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
1981–9015.9°19.7°24.2°29.9°34.6°40.5°42.9°41.2°36.7°29.8°21.1°15.0°
2017–2619.3°21.4°25.0°30.1°34.5°40.6°43.8°42.3°37.4°30.6°23.2°19.3°
Change+3.4°+1.7°+0.8°+0.2°-0.1°+0.1°+0.9°+1.1°+0.7°+0.8°+2.1°+4.4°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

Fly into Las Vegas (LAS), then drive. The flights under Where to book are to Las Vegas.

The drive from each airport is the road's, from openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT: typical, not a schedule.

How far Death Valley is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type A and B plugs at 120 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the United states dollar. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Everything for United States: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

  • Paying — Cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay work almost everywhere, though a few small places take cash only. Keep some $1 and $5 notes for tips; Venmo and PayPal are for locals.
  • UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
  • Tipping — Expected: 15–20% in sit-down restaurants (18–20% is standard in New York) and 10–20% for taxi, Uber and Lyft drivers. Large groups may find it already on the bill.

Getting around Death Valley

  • Apps — Rides: Lyft, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: Text messages (SMS), WhatsApp. In San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami and some other cities you can also book a driverless Waymo in its own app.

A car is highly recommended although during the more temperate seasons such as the fall and spring a nice bike ride may be in order. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Death Valley National Park, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

  • Emergency — 911 (any emergency).
    TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (50)

Death Valley in pictures

SR 190 Panamint Springs Resort End Death Valley 2013
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Tuxyso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Zabriskie Point Death Valley December 2013 002
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King of Hearts, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Death Valley Artist's Drive 2013
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Tuxyso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Artist's Palette, Death Valley National Park, California
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Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Artist's Drive Death Valley December 2013 001
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King of Hearts, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Death Valley is like

Death Valley National Park is a national park that is mostly in the Southern California Desert, with a small portion extending into Nevada. Many potential visitors ignore the park due to the misconception that it is a lifeless, empty landscape, but this park covers 3.4 million acres (1,400,000 ha; 14,000 km2). More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing
It is possible to get close up to them, and is generally not too hard if you have prior hiking experience. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing
There are numerous hiking trails within the park, ranging in difficulty from short loops to overnight, mountainous treks. Always bring sufficient water when hiking in Death Valley; the heat can kill. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in
Las Vegas at Harry Reid International Airport (LAS IATA) is the closest commercial airport to Death Valley, about a 120 mi (190 km), two-hour drive from Furnace Creek. More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe
Follow Desert Survival guidelines. The name of the park says it all. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Death Valley National Park, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Death Valley

Also in United States

Nearby

Kind of place

Death Valley is in United States, North America. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book through one, at no extra cost to you. That does not affect the scores on this page, which are computed from climate and fare data before any link is built.