SeeCalifornia.com

Pictured is Jail Canyon in Death Valley National Park. Death Valley has over 1,300 miles of roads from paved highway to rocky two-track. Conditions can and do change without notice. Never rely on your GPS or cell phone in Death Valley. Check with the Visitor Center for additional advisories.

In celebration of “National Park Week: Go Wild!” Saturday, April 19 and Sunday, April 20, 2014 are fee-free entry days to 400 national parks. In California 26 parks such as Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Devils Postpile, Pinnacles, Point Reyes, Muir Woods, Lava Beds, Kings Canyon, Lassen Volcanic, Redwoods, Sequoia, Whiskeytown and Yosemite provide great springtime escapes from civilization, though not all of them are crowd-free on free days. Nevertheless, the free admission coincides with Easter so more people can take advantage of the deal which happens just a few times each year. In addition to visiting National Parks as a tourist, you can pitch in–nearly every park has a volunteer program with activities ranging from being the greeter at a campground to typing and entering data on computers (see nps.gov for lists of tasks available at specific parks.)