Death Valley National Park is massive—it’s the largest national park in the U.S. outside of Alaska and bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined! This park is full of record-breakers: it’s the lowest point in the U.S. at 282 feet below sea level, the hottest place ever recorded on Earth, and the driest spot in North America.

The Timbisha Shoshone have lived here for generations, long before pioneers arrived in the mid-1800s chasing gold. The name “Death Valley” actually came from a group of lost pioneers in 1849. Only one person died, but the experience was so brutal, one of them said “Goodbye, Death Valley” as they finally escaped—and the name stuck.

Tourism started taking off in the 1920s with resorts in Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells, and in 1933, it became a national monument—later upgraded to a full national park in 1994!