Death Valley, CA – When to Visit

If you enjoy extreme high temperatures visit Death Valley in the middle of July, as historically that is the hottest time of the year. However the most comfortable time of the year to visit is in early Spring, like March and the first or second week in April. During these months the high temperature is often in the 70’s and 80’s. Fall can also be a nice time to visit but the high temperatures in September and October are a bit warmer averaging in the 90’s and low 100’s. Winter high temperatures average in the mid 60’s to low 70’s. Night time lows can be very cold this time of year – into the 30s and 40s on the valley floor and much colder at the higher elevations.

Every so often Death Valley receives more than the inch or two of rain that they average each year and this extra water produces an incredible desert bloom in the later winter and early spring months. In late 2004 Death Valley received quite a bit of rain which produced flash flooding and actually washed out part of the main roads and disabled quite a few other roads (happened again in late 2015).

Several notes regarding flash floods – these can happen very quickly in a matter of minutes if it has been raining already for some time. During one of our visits to the park in early August we drove in from the Nevada side at 2am. This was after driving around localized flash floods that had closed most of the western roads into the park. We actually drove down from Beatty Nevada on several roads that were completely covered by the washouts left by the localized rainstorms. Fortunately we drove this after they occurred. Parts of the road had at least a foot or more of mud, rocks and small boulders cover it; imagine if you were here during the flash floods which would not be a safe place. Flash floods can happen any time of the year – if its cloudy, keep an eye on the weather.

Many people visit Death Valley in the late fall, winter and spring months thus avoiding the hottest times of the year. These times are the most crowded in Death Valley and its a good idea to make reservations at some of the park hotels. However, international tourists are fascinated with the heat of Death Valley and especially in the heart of the summer one will meet people from around the world who have come here to see what this heat feels like for themselves (often from Europe).

Scotty’s Castle can have lines to get in on the tours in the winter months – so it is a good idea to get there early. Even with the extreme summertime temperatures there are still quite a few people who visit Death Valley. We have been to Death Valley numerous times in different times of the year and we are always amazed by the large number of people from Germany who are visiting. It seems that they love the heat just as much as we do!

The least crowded months of the year to visit are January and October.

Average Temperatures – note the average minimum temperatures in the right hand column would follow the high temperature pattern in many parts of the USA during the course of a year.