Start from 33 curated places around Death Valley, CA, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Last Kind Words Saloon
The only full-service sit-down restaurant inside the park, a two-story Old West saloon at The Ranch at Death Valley packed with antique guns, taxidermy, and movie posters. The menu runs steaks, ribs, salmon, and pasta with local beers and whiskey. It leans pricey and reviews are mixed, but it is the dinner option at Furnace Creek.
Toll Road Restaurant
The dining room at Stovepipe Wells Village, serving steaks, pasta, and a well-regarded breakfast buffet under Old West decor. Locals and repeat visitors rate it better value than the Furnace Creek options. It shares a kitchen with the adjacent Badwater Saloon.
Trails & outdoors
Golden Canyon Trail to Red Cathedral
A walk up a golden-walled canyon into narrowing slots, ending at the red rock face of Red Cathedral. The first mile is gentle; the final push involves some rock scrambling. It connects to longer loops toward Zabriskie Point if you want more.
Mosaic Canyon Trail
A narrows hike just above Stovepipe Wells where water-polished marble walls swirl with embedded rock fragments like a mosaic. Many people stop at the boulder jam about a mile up, but the canyon continues for those who scramble. The polished sections are the signature.
Things to do
Furnace Creek Visitor Center
The park's main hub, with strong exhibits on geology and human history, a relief map you light up by section, and rangers who give the real word on road and weather conditions. The big outdoor thermometer is the classic photo. This is where to start any first day.
Borax Museum
A small free museum at The Ranch at Death Valley with mining-history exhibits indoors and a yard of stagecoaches, locomotives, and old equipment outside. It is the best quick history stop in Furnace Creek, especially the outdoor machinery. A rainy-or-roasting-day diversion close to the lodges.
Landmarks & sights
Badwater Basin
The lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level, a vast field of hexagonal salt polygons stretching to the mountains. A boardwalk leads to the flats, but the surreal cracked-salt patterns start once you walk past the crowds. Look up the cliff behind the lot for the small 'Sea Level' sign.
Zabriskie Point
An overlook above golden, wrinkled badlands that glow at first light, with Manly Beacon rising in the middle distance. It is a short paved walk up from the lot, which is why it draws a sunrise crowd. The same eroded mudstone is the launch point for the Golden Canyon hikes below.