Death Valley National Park class 2 or "average dark sky" sites. Death Valley National Park Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California—Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts, protecting the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and its diverse environment of salt-flats, sand dunes, badlands, valleys, canyons, and mountains. Death Valley is the largest national park in the lower 48 states, and the hottest, driest and lowest of all the national parks in the United States. The second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere is
Death Valley pupfish Death Valley pupfish The Death Valley pupfish ("Cyprinodon salinus"), also known as Salt Creek pupfish, is found in Death Valley National Park. There are two recognized subspecies: "C. s. salinus" and "C. s. milleri". It is endemic to two small, isolated locations and currently classified as endangered. The desert pupfish is a small, silvery colored fish with 6-9 dark bands on its sides. It has an average length of , with a recorded maximum of . The males turn bright blue during mating season, April through October. The pupfish can withstand harsh conditions that would kill other fish: water that