Places of interest in the Death Valley area Places of interest in the Death Valley area Places of interest in the Death Valley area are mostly located within Death Valley National Park in eastern California. Artist's Drive rises up to the top of an alluvial fan fed by a deep canyon cut into the Black Mountains. Artist's Palette is an area on the face of the Black Mountains noted for a variety of rock colors. These colors are caused by the oxidation of different metals (iron compounds produce red, pink and yellow, decomposition of tuff-derived mica produces green, and manganese produces purple). Called the Artist Drive Formation, the
Death Valley driest stretch on record with only of rain over a 40-month period. On June 30, 2013, during the 2013 extreme heat wave, the mercury reached 129 °F (54 °C) at Furnace Creek station, which is the all-time highest air temperature recorded for June. The mean annual temperature for Death Valley (Furnace Creek Weather Station) is with an average high of in December, in January, and in July. From 1934 to 1961, the weather station at Cow Creek recorded a mean annual temperature of . The longest number of consecutive days where temperatures reached or more was 205 from April to