Things to do in Rhyolite

Death Valley National Park is the continental United States’ largest park. It’s also the hottest, driest and lowest. Despite harsh conditions, the park’s more than 3 million acres (1.3 million hectares) aren’t simply desert plains. Find mountains, canyons, sand dunes, extinct volcanic craters and even palm trees and wildflowers.

The Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes is a spectacular natural phenomenon in the heart of Death Valley. It consists of dunes 100 feet (30 meters) high that offer unobstructed views of the surrounding mountains. Notice the ever-changing patterns carved into this sandy landscape.

Rhyolite Ghost Town was inhabited for just 12 years, from 1904 to 1916. However, it flourished enormously during this short period. Wander the eerie, long-deserted streets of this prominent gold rush-era boomtown and marvel at the infrastructure that sprang up in such a short space of time.

Imagine being one of the 300 miners who streamed into Leadfield Ghost Town in 1926, expecting to make a fortune. Picture being one of them less than a year later, when the town was abandoned to the desert. It was started and promoted by Charles C. Julian, who marketed the development across California as one of the last great mines of the Death Valley mining boom. Within a few months he was escaping to Shanghai to avoid claims that he had lied to investors.

Venture into the remote Mojave Desert to find the Goldwell Open Air Museum, a strange 15-acre (6-hectare) outdoor site where vast sculptures have stood since Belgian artist Albert Szukalski first founded the museum in 1984.

A rustic dirt road meanders through the narrow openings of spectacular Titus Canyon. It is known as one of the most picturesque and popular valleys in the region for passing through in your car. Drive along the twists and turns of the gorge, noticing the variety of rock formations and colors to your left and right.