The Death Valley alone is worth a trip to the USA, especially if you have never seen a desert before. It is hot. Really really hot. An beautiful and lonely.

You can see several things in the Death Valley which are all awesome. And some are not. Something I cannot recommend is the ghost town Ryholite. There are several blogs and travel guides that say it an great ghost town, very interesting, with a lot of history blabla bla. Here are come links/blogs that recommend to see Ryholite and think that it is one of the seven best ghost towns in the US (http://www.myreiseblog.de/sehenswurdigkeiten-usa/ghost-towns/rhyolite-ghost-town-nevada/; http://lasvegas.us123.info/wordpress/archives/geisterstadt-rhyolite/; http://usa-reiseblogger.de/7-schoensten-geisterstaedte-usa/) If this is true, than no ghost town is worth your time.

Some of the buildings are around 100 years old – I mean the three buildings that you can see there. And the rest is basically garbage somebody put there so the tourist have something to look at. Honestly it not worth your time, because from LAS Vegas it is quite a drive and it is not near the Death Valley Junction where all the other cool tourist spots are. But if you need need need to see a ghost town on your trip. There is one thing about Ryholite that I liked – the bottled house.

TO DOs in Death Valley:

• Badwater: this is the deepest point in the US and believe me the hottest!!
• Artist’s Palette: is a beautiful stone formation which is glowing green and rosa becouse of some chmical reactions 
• Devil’s Golf Course: is an incredible salt plan formation on pictures
• Sand Dunes: for me it was the first time in my life to see real sand dunes. The sand was setting and it began to cool down (just a little bit) and it was beautiful. If you like or love Star Wars than the Death Valley sand dunes are a MUST. A lot of scenes were filmed there. There are even some blogs that show you where which scenes were filmed with funny pictures from fans recreating some of the best movie scenes (http://www.panamintcity.com/exclusives/starwars.html).

 

 

Some Don´ts in Death Valley or Dos if you have time:

• The ghost town Ryholite – boring!
• Furnace Creek: it is an oasis in this desert. The visitor center, museum, and headquarters of the Death Valley National Park are located at Furnace Creek. We didn´t have the time to go there and I love to be more in nature, but it is up to you;)

Here are some Tips for your Trip to the Death Valley:

• Again again again: Be careful! I took a ton of sunscreen, I dressed up from  head to toe, I drank  a lot of water and even dashed myself with water before getting out of the car and exploring the Bad Water Basin – still I almost got a sunstroke. My boyfriend couldn´t wake me up the next day before 11 o´clock. I swear our thermometer in the car showed 150°F.
• Take a lot of water (at least 5 liters) and than some more, because your car might break down in the middle of nowhere.
• Take a charged phone and look up the number of the next car towing company before you go
• Like every National Park in the US you have to pay for the Death Valley National Park as well. And it is not cheap ($25 for 7 Days). You can easily miss the automates where you can pay the fee. We didn´t and there was nobody controlling whether we payed it or not. So decide for your self what you want to do.