Death Valley National Park photographs taken in Winter by William Horton

Death Valley National Park is glorious in December. There are no crowds and the colors vibrate in the low winter sun. So, take a look at our collection of photos from our winter photoshoot. Did I say there are no crowds?!

Locations visited in Death Valley National Park

Death Valley is huge. Therefore, the major sections of the park are miles apart, on roads that leave alot to be desired. The gallery below contains photos from many of the most iconic locations: Badwater Basin, Dante’s View, Zabriski Point, Artist’s Palette, Mars Hill, the Devil’s Golf Course, Lee FLat, Aguerreberry Point, Wildrose Charcoal Kilns, Ashford Mill, Ubehebe Crater, Marble Canyon, and Titus Canyon. Here is a National Park Map of Death Valley. The featured photo for this post shows the Wildrose Charcoal Kilns at night.

Photo gallery of Death Valley

Here are photographs from in and around the park.

The morning sun shines through the last reamining walls of the Ashford Mill ruins, located just off Badwater Road in Death Valley National Park.

The morning sun illuminates the last reamining walls of the Ashford Mill ruins, located just off Badwater Road in Death Valley National Park.

The Eye of the Needle (sometimes called Needle's Eye) is a weathered out keyhole-shaped window located about 5 miles up Echo Canyon Road, which follows an alluvial up and into Echo Canyon, in Death Valley National Park.

This huge wooden wagon wheel is part of an exhibit at the Borax Museum at Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park, California.

Prismatic-colored clouds glow over silhouetted mountains in Death Valley National Park. This phenomenon is called irisation.

The yellow sunset sky hints at the firey origin of basalt that forms Muchroom Rock. Mushroom Rock is the remains of a very large chunk of basalt that has been shaped through the weathering process of salt expansion - not wind. It is located on the east side of Badwater Road, just north of the exit of one-way Artist's Drive in Death Valley National Park.

Mushroom rock is the remains of a very large chunk of basalt that has been shaped through the weathering process of salt expansion - not wind. It is located on the east side of Badwater Road, just north of the exit of one-way Artist's Drive in Death Valley National Park.

Corkscrew Peak glows orange-red as we head northeast on Daylight Pass Road toward Rhyolite Ghost Town, which is just outside the boundary of Death Valley National Park near Beatty, Nevada.

From Red Pass, the the road winds down into the upper reaches of Titus Canyon. The colorful strata is the Titus Canyon Formation, which is mostly sandstone and conglomerates. The dark banded strata in the distance is the Bonanza King Formation.

This colorful strata, seen on the road to Titus Canyon in Death Valley National Park, is the Titus Canyon Formation, which is mostly sandstone and conglomerates. The road travels through this formation, allowing for an up-close and personal view.

Ubehebe Crater is a maar volcano located off Scotty's Castle Road in Death Valley National Park, California. The colorful strata visible in the wall of the crater are sedementary deposits of the Navadu Formation. Ubehebe is the largest in a cluster of maar volcanoes located in this area. The explosions that formed these craters were caused by steam created when a small amount of basaltic magma encountered subsurface water.

Looking up this wineglass-type canyon, you can see how water has carved a sinuous path through the Noonday dolomite of Mosaic Canyon, located a short distance up a dirt road just west of Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley National Park, California.

These cracked mudflats are visible along a dirt road that heads west from the airstrip at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley National Park, California.

These mudflats and basalt boulders can be seen along a dirt road that heads west from the airstrip at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley National Park, California.

Tuffs of grass grow on the walls and floor of Marble Canyon. Marble Canyon is accessible from a dirt road that heads west from the airstrip at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley National Park, California.

A stunted juniper grows in the alluvial debris on the floor of Marble Canyon. Marble Canyon is accessible from a dirt road that heads west from the airstrip at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley National Park, California.

After sunset, lights illuminate the openings of the ten charcoal kilns located at the end of Wildrose Canyon in Death Valley National Park, California.

This view was taken heading west on Charcoal Kilns Road toward Wildrose Road in Death Valley National Park, California.

From Aguereberry Point, accessible by a dirt road off Emigrant Canyon Road in Death Valley National Park, you can see rills and valleys filled with erosional alluvium scoured out of the Panamint Range into the Death Valley Basin.

This is a view of Badwater Basin from Aguereberry Point, accessible by a dirt road off Emigrant Canyon Road in Death Valley National Park

Father Crowley Viewpoint is located west of Panamint Springs on Highway 190. If you continue about .5 miles from the paved parking area, you get a breathtaking view of the upper Panamint Valley. This black-and-white photograph shows a portion of Rainbow Canyon. Military jets from China Lake, to the west, periodically fly through this canyon, sometimes called "Star Wars Canyon."

Before making the right-hand curve at Panamint Springs Resort, in Death Valley National Park, you can see the west face of the Panamint Range across the Panamint Valley.

Heading east on CA Highway 190, you cross the Panamint Valley and head into the Panamint Range, on the western portion of Death Valley National Park.

This sepia photograph shows the view from Aguereberry Point, accessible by a dirt road off Emigrant Canyon Road in Death Valley National Park, out across Death Valley and Badwater Basin to the Black Mountains to the south

This view from Aguereberry Point, accessible by a dirt road off Emigrant Canyon Road in Death Valley National Park, out across Death Valley and Badwater Basin to the Black Mountains to the south

Located along Saline Valley Road, on the way to the Lee Flat Joshua Tree forest, is a boxcar that was part of the BLM's Adopt-a-Cabin program. It is semi-maintained and can be used as an overnight accommodation by travelers exploring this part of Death Valley National Park, California. Along with the cabin is this lonely, but functional, outhouse.

There is a forest of Joshua Trees in the Lee Flat area of Death Valley National Park, which is accessible from the Saline Valley Road off Highway 190 north of Father Crowley Point.

The Devil's Golf Course is accessible from Badwater Road, between Artist's Drive and Natural Bridge, in Death Valley National Park. The evaporite minerals, such as salt, found in this part of Badwater Basin have come from the weathered and washed out components of the yellow Furnace Creek Formation. One of the reasons it is so rough is that this part of the basin is above the annual flood, which would tend to smooth out the surface.

Mars Hill and Ventifact Ridge are on the opposite side of Badwater Road from Artist's Drive in Death Valley National Park. Boulders of basalt are strewn over the desert pavement on these two high-point overlooking Badwater Basin.

From Artist's Palette Drive, accessible from Badwater Road, you can see can see the Artisit's Drive Formation, the most colorful formation in Death Valley. This formation is composed of various kinds of volcanic debris, such as ash, tuff, and basalt. The colors are due the weathering of trace elements within the debris. You can park and hike among these mounts of colorful rock.

This view of Manly Beacon is accessible from the Zabriskie Point Overlook, which is accessible from Highway 190 in Death Valley National Park.

A view looking northward toward Furnace Creek from Dante's View, in the Black Mountains, 13 miles southwest of Highway 190 in Death Valley National Park, California.

This is a close-up view of the margin between the yellow Furnace Creek Formation and the multi-colored Artist's Drive formation visible from Zabriskie Point Overlook, which is accessible from Highway 190 in Death Valley National Park.

This black-and-white photograph features Manly Beacon. This viewpoint is accessible from the Zabriskie Point Overlook, which is accessible from Highway 190 in Death Valley National Park.

The badlands visible from the Zabriskie Point Overlook, which is accessible from Highway 190 in Death Valley National Park, are examples of dendritic drainage caused by periodic flooding.

A view of Badwater Basin and the Panamint Mountains in the distance from Dante's View, in the Black Mountains, 13 miles southwest of Highway 190 in Death Valley National Park, California. Notice the alluvial fans in the lower left quadrant.

The rising sun illuminates desert brush at Dante's View, in the Black Mountains, 13 miles southwest of Highway 190 in Death Valley National Park, California.

A panotamic view of Badwater Basin and the Panamint Range in the distance from Dante's View, in the Black Mountains, 13 miles southwest of Highway 190 in Death Valley National Park, California.

Desert Holly (Atriplex hymenelytra) grows along the road near Bad Water Basin in Death Valley National Park, California.

The low angle of the setting sun highlights the hexagonal plates of salt crystals in Badwater Basin in Death BValley National Park, California

Purchasing our photos

All of our scenic photographs are available as fine art prints. Use the contact form to the right to get more information. Or, go to our Fine Art Print page to learn about various pricing options.