Hidden In The Heart Of Death Valley National Park Is A Gateway Village With Cozy Desert Stays And Wild Scenery

The Death Valley National Park has superlatives oozing from each of its red-rock canyons and shifting sand hills. This land of surreal, Mars-like landscapes is the hottest place on the planet, the driest on the continent, and home to North America's lowest point. Over one million people visit the reserve each year to be wowed by the sheer rawness of the nature, from the mirage-inducing peaks and troughs of the Mesquite Flats dunes to the saltpans of Badwater Basin. Nestled in the midst of it all is the bijou outpost of Stovepipe Wells, a long-time rest stop for travelers making their way through this inhospitable landscape.

Yep, old Stovepipe has been an oasis in the desert for over a century now. It began life some 5 miles from its current location, at the site of a natural water spring. With the coming of mining in the 1900s, it developed into a helpful pitstop on the way between the boom towns of Rhyolite and Skidoo, but was later abandoned. Then came Bob Eichbaum, pioneer of all things Death Valley tourism. He spearheaded the construction of the region's first toll road and developed a fully-fledged resort at the end of it. The Stovepipe Wells of today was born.

To get here, you'll have to travel along what's surely one of the most remarkable roads in the U.S. Dropping nearly 5,000 feet as you cruise from the edge of the Sierra Nevada down to the low-lying valley bottom, driving the SR-190 means swapping a land of snowy summits for a place of endless sand flats and sun-blasted mountains. It should take around one and a half hours to go from Lone Pine to Stovepipe Wells. Surprisingly, the nearest major airport is just over two hours to the east, in Las Vegas.

It's a question of "location, location, location" in Stovepipe Wells. The small town is plonked smack dab in the heart of central Death Valley, with some of the region's most enticing draws right on the doorstep. Look just to the east, for example, and you'll be gazing across the undulating Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, a sea of beige that casts strange shadows and comes topped with gnarled desert trees.

Perhaps most notably, you can branch out southeast from here to visit two of the most iconic viewpoints in the park. Dante's View — rated as Death Valley's number one attraction on Tripadvisor — opens up incredible panoramas of Badwater Basin and the Panamint Range. The scenic vistas and epic sunset viewing of Zabriskie Point are even closer — 30 minutes in the car can you bring you to that lookout above the whittled hoodoos of the Golden Canyon.

And there's more, because the geological wonderworld of Mosaic Canyon can be accessed via a 2.5-mile track from Stovepipe Wells itself. It's one of Death Valley's iconic slot gorges, where hikers squeeze through tight gaps and scramble up weathered boulders to explore deep within the mountains that carve through the middle of the reserve.

As well as being a fine base for immersing yourself in the otherworldly scenery of Death Valley, Stovepipe Wells is a charmer. It's got a real Wild West sort of vibe to it, what with dusty streets that come lined with an old-school-style saloon and the type of general store you'd expect to see Clint Eastwood in.

The Stovepipe Wells Village Hotel has been the centerpiece of the town since it first opened its doors way back in 1926. It was actually the very first hotel to be built in Death Valley, and, although it's changed hands several times and been modernized since the early days, it still manages to evoke the feel of yesteryear with its timber exteriors and sloped metal roofs. It's even possible to stay in one of the original rooms from the 1920s.

The hotel is one of the more luxurious lodgings in the national park — it's even got an on-site swimming pool that's perfect for cooling off when the scorching and dangerous heat of the Death Valley summer comes around. If you're more into roughing it, check out the Stovepipe Wells Campground, where you'll find 28 tent-only sites with fire pits and tables.