DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK -- Hottest. Lowest. Driest. Those words describe Death Valley, but leaving it at that is like describing chocolate merely as brown. You have to taste this storied slice of the California desert to understand its calling. Taste it with your eyes, your skin, your ears, your mind.

For the eyes, there are sights you'll see nowhere else on the planet: salt-crusted badlands 200 feet below sea level, walled in by mountains reaching more than 11,000 feet high. Sand dunes, marble canyons, volcanic craters, dirt tracks leading to ruined mines.

Some of the geologic formations the sea-green and violet pinnacles of Artist's Palette, for example, or the striated sandstone ridges at Zabriskie Point -- are so one-of-a-kind they'll stay forever wedged in your mind. Nor will you forget the way that, at dawn, the sun creeps in like a paintbrush, washing the valley with color, one crenelated mountain wall at a time.

The air in Death Valley is so clear it seems like it could shatter, and so oxygen-saturated that just breathing imparts a noticeable measure of vigor.

For the skin, there are other sensory pleasures -- or tortures, depending.

In summer, when most tourists come ("that's when most people have vacation time," a park ranger shrugged when I asked why), the heat is like an anvil, pressing down on everything, all the time. It won't let you up, day or night, even for a minute. Daytime highs of 120 degrees are common; at night it seldom dips below 90. The tanks of radiator water strategically located alongside the park's steepest roads weren't put there just for fun.

Winter is the best time to appreciate Death Valley's wonders. Temperatures then are so pleasant -- low 60s in the daytime, low 40s at night -- you'll wonder how on earth the place got such a foreboding name. Early spring and late fall are comfortable, too, with cool nights and tolerably warm days.

For the ears, Death Valley has something most of us don't often experience: silence. Dead, absolute silence -- or at least, the absence of man-made sound. Some visitors are frightened by this. They're the ones you see getting out of their cars and standing there with the door open and the radio on, terrified of solitude.

Far better to embrace it. Cell phones don't work here, and the few so-called Internet "hot spots" don't work so hot. But being off the grid has its advantages. It gives you time to think, for one thing. And there's lots to contemplate in Death Valley, especially in terms of those who came before.

The Timbisha Shoshone claimed the valley first, only to be pushed out by pioneers, gold seekers and borax entrepreneurs. Eccentrics loomed large. One who left an indelible mark was Walter Scott, a stunt rider in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show who conned a wealthy Chicago businessman into building him a castle -- now a tourist attraction -- in this unlikely spot.

It's all here, and more. So don't be put off by your preconceptions. Think of a visit as an adventure, and it will be.

• Why so dry?

Death Valley lies in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada and three other mountain ranges that block the storms moving inland from the Pacific. By the time the clouds reach the valley, they usually have been stripped of moisture.

• Why so hot?

The long, narrow valley dips to 282 feet below sea level and is completely walled in by mountains, trapping the air within. Assisted by low-elevation air pressure, the clear, dry air becomes superheated as it bakes on the valley floor in the daytime. Overnight, it rises and is pushed down again the next day.

Weather facts:

• The coldest and hottest temperatures ever recorded in Death Valley both occurred in 1913: a record low of 15 degrees on Jan. 8; a record high of 134 degrees on July 10.

• Average rainfall in Death Valley has been increasing, averaging 2.5 inches over the past 30 years. The 60-year average is just 1.6 inches.

• The wettest season on record was the winter of 1997-98, when 6.09 inches of precipitation was recorded. The wettest month was January 1995, when 2.59 inches fell.

• In 1929, no rain at all was recorded in Death Valley. And from 1931 through 1934, a total of only 0.64 inches fell.

• In the summer of 2001, a record 154 consecutive days with a maximum temperature of 100 degrees or above was recorded.

• The hottest summer on record was 1996, with 40 days over 120 degrees and 105 days with high temperatures over 110 degrees.

• Ground temperatures on the valley floor are about 40 percent higher than surrounding air temperature. The highest ground temperature recorded was 201 at Furnace Creek on July 15, 1972.

Death Valley is easily one of the best "drive through" parks in the country. You can easily spend several days just cruising from one natural wonder to another.

Timing: It's hot in Death Valley much of the year, so you'll want to do much of your sightseeing early and late in the day. Don't miss sunrise at Zabriskie Point, just a 10-minute drive from the Furnace Creek Village tourist complex. Sunset there is spectacular, too, with a different part of the landscape lit up.

Another sunrise-sunset hot spot is the Mesquite Flat Dunes complex (also called Death Valley Dunes) near Stovepipe Wells, where you can ditch your shoes, climb and play to your heart's content.

One day: If you have just one day and aren't up for much hiking, base yourself at either the centrally located Furnace Creek Ranch or the nearby Furnace Creek Inn. Start early in the morning with the three-mile drive to Zabriskie Point, take in the view and continue another three miles to 20-Mule Team Canyon, where one of the best scenic drives in the park leads past a jaw-dropping panorama of bizarre, deeply eroded badlands pocked with mining tunnels burrowed by borax prospectors.

Backtrack to Furnace Creek and drive 20 miles south on Highway 178 to Badwater, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. A boardwalk leads visitors onto the white-as-snow salt pan. On the way back, have a look at Devil's Golf Course, an eerie flat covered in lumps and spires of crystalline salts.

Then explore the nine-mile Artist's Drive, a one-way, roller coaster road weaving through colorful rock formations including Artist's Palette, where minerals stain the rocks astonishing shades of green, yellow, blue and pink.

You can do all that before lunch, which you can eat at any of five restaurants (some open seasonally) in the Furnace Creek area. Afterward, bone up on Death Valley history and geology at the Death Valley Museum in the national park visitor center and the nearby Borax Museum.

In late afternoon, make a side trip to Harmony Borax Works, where an interpretive trail explains how the "white gold of the desert" was mined and processed. Stovepipe Wells, a secondary tourist center, is 20 miles up the road. Just past its motel/gas station complex is Mosaic Canyon, where you'll want to hike in to see walls of pure marble striated in hues of off-white, gray, brown and rose.

Then drive back to the Mesquite Flat Dunes for some frolicking in the sand at the end of the day.

More time: Add a day or two, and you'll fall more completely under Death Valley's spell. A tour of Scotty's Castle, a historic 1920s mansion 50 miles northwest of Furnace Creek, can be combined with a stop at Ubehebe Crater, a spectacular volcanic pit smeared with vibrant color. You'll need a high-clearance vehicle to explore Titus Canyon, with its spectacular view and rock formations, and Racetrack Playa, a dry lake bed where boulders wiggled by the winds of time have left long, mysterious tracks in the earth.

Beyond these well-known sites lie ghost towns, the ruins of old mines and a thousand and one other places where you most likely will be the only visitor.

If you're like most people who get this far, Death Valley will draw you back again and again.

THE BASICS: Death Valley was given its name by a group of pioneers dubbed the "Lost 49ers" who were stranded there in the winter of 1849-50. Only one of them died, but they all expected to.

Death Valley was made a national monument in 1933 and a national park in 1994. About 1.2 million people a year visit the 3.3 million-acre preserve. The entry fee of $20 per vehicle is good for a week.

GETTING THERE: The park is transected east to west by California Highway 190.

Visitor services: The Furnace Creek Visitor Center and Museum is open year-round from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Numerous interpretive walks and talks given by park rangers are offered daily; you can pick up a schedule at the visitor center. Restaurants, gasoline and supplies are available inside the park at Furnace Creek Village, Stovepipe Wells and Panamint Springs.

LODGING: Motel accommodations are available at Stovepipe Wells (760-786-2387), Furnace Creek Ranch (760-786-2345; www.furnacecreekresort.com ) and Panamint Springs (775-482-7680; www.deathvalley.com ). The four-star Furnace Creek Inn is open from mid-October to mid-May (760-786-2345; www.furnacecreekresort.com ).

Lodging outside the park is available in most towns along Highways 395 and 178 in California and Highway 95 in Nevada.

CAMPING: Of the park's nine campgrounds, four are open all year, the rest October through April. For reservations: (877) 444-6777 or www.recreation.gov .

SCOTTY'S CASTLE: Fifty-minute living-history tours conducted by guides in period costume are offered daily, year-round, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets cost $11 general, $9 for ages 62 and older, $6 for ages 6-15 and free for ages 5 and younger. Tour groups are limited to 19 people. Allow an hour and a half for the 50-mile drive from Furnace Creek over a good paved road.

WILDFLOWER UPDATES: January rains improved the prospects of a showy wildflower season. Peak bloom varies depending on temperatures and rainfall, but usually occurs in late March. Updates are available on the park Web site.

PARK INFORMATION: www.nps.gov/deva or (760) 786-3200.