Area Attractions

People stop here on the way to Death Valley and are usually surprised by how big it actually is. Started in 2001 as the Death Valley Nut and Candy Co. and now often called the biggest candy store in the state, with aisles upon aisles of chocolate, gummies, taffy, and bubble gum. Inside you'll also find ice cream made on site, coffee, jerky, sandwiches, souvenirs, toys, and a bunch of unique odds and ends. Worth it even without a sweet tooth.

16 to 19 miles from Beatty on Hwy 374, starting around Death Valley mile post 10. Picture coming out of the canyon in a wagon and hitting a wall of heat like an oven door opening. You can still feel it today. Roll your window down around the 16 mile mark and stick your hand out, and within the next mile or so you should catch the temperature jump. On windy days it comes more gradually, in pockets of warm and cool air, right up until the Hell's Gate Rest Area. Just around the corner is the information area and your first wide open view of Death Valley, one of the best photo stops on the whole drive in.

Death Valley holds a Gold Tier Dark Sky designation, the highest rating there is and one of the darkest skies of any national park, with over 300 clear nights a year on average. Best viewing runs October through April around the new moon, with the Perseids peaking in mid-August and the Geminids in December.

Beatty is also a stop on Park to Park in the Dark, Nevada's first astrotourism route. It runs 317 miles along US-95 and US-6 between Death Valley and Great Basin, two International Dark Sky Parks, through Beatty, Goldfield, Tonopah, Ely, and Baker. We're surrounded by public land and dirt roads, so finding a dark spot to set up a telescope is easy.

About two miles south and east of town, this outcropping looks like nothing but pale gray rock from a distance. Up close, a casual rock hound can find beautifully preserved fossils some 480 million years old: sponges, tiny crustaceans related to barnacles, gastropods, brachiopods, and more. These Ordovician mudmounds, or bioherms, were essentially huge underwater mud dunes that trapped sediment carried by the prevailing sea currents. This one likely formed scores of miles off the ancient Ordovician shoreline, in water shallow enough for enormous algae mats to flourish and for animal life to thrive along the flanks.

Nearby is the Swiss Cheese Outcropping, an unusual formation riddled with holes and a fun place to poke around. Some folks camp in the shelter of it, and you just might get treated to a bighorn sheep sighting while you're out there.

Cresting roughly 300 feet above the surrounding terrain, managed by the BLM and open to both motorized and non-motorized recreation. Access from Valley View Road, about 2.5 miles south of US-95. It's open around the clock, camping is dispersed, and there are no restrooms or water out there, so pack in what you need. Part of the dune is set aside as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern, so watch for the signs and stay out of the closed ground.

A true oasis in the middle of the Mojave and Great Basin deserts. The trees, wetlands, and open space along the Amargosa River give habitat to year-round residents and nesting seasonal birds, and the corridor regularly supports 21 species identified as Nevada Partners in Flight conservation priorities. Surveys have recorded around 100 species of Neotropical migrants passing through in spring or fall, including single-species concentrations of more than 25,000 individuals from four groups of the wood warbler family each spring.

For the best viewing, check the Amargosa River, Species Springs, Vanderbilt Springs, Indian Springs, and Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.