Death Valley National Park is a national park in the U.S. states of California and Nevada. It is the hottest, driest, and lowest place in North America. The park was designated as a national monument in 1933 and a national park in 1994. It contains 3,000 sq mi (7,800 km2) in California and Nevada. About 95% of the park is a wilderness area.

Death Valley has many famous and unusual geographical features. Some of these features include sand dunes, salt flats, colorful rocks, and tall mountains. Large parts of Death Valley are below sea level. One feature, named Badwater Basin, is the lowest place in North America. The salt flats are another famous feature in Death Valley. Salt flats are very unusual. They are large, flattened areas where the surface of the ground is covered by salt instead of dirt.

All across Death Valley, rocks and stones leave small paths behind them in curved, zigzagged (with twists and turns), or straight patterns. The rocks are not alive, of course, but they still travel across the lake bed. The wind then blows the rocks across the slippery surface, sometimes as fast as 3 ft (0.91 m) every second.

There are less than 2 in (51 mm) of rain in Death Valley every year. Because Death Valley is so dry all the time, even the dirt that is not covered in salt has become very hard. This means that even though it does not rain often, when it does rain, the dirt cannot absorb all the water quickly enough, and the water can turn into a flash flood.

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