SeeCalifornia.com

Scotty’s Castle (top left and right), is located in the heart of Death Valley, an extremely dry place with an evaporation rate of 150 inches per year. It only rains less than two inches per year…the two don’t quite meet.

Furnace Creek Inn (bottom left photo) was designed by prominent Los Angeles architect Albert C. Martin and landscape architect Daniel Hull. The 66 room inn sprawls across a low hill at the mouth of Furnace Creek Wash, featuring views over Death Valley and the Panamint Mountains to the west. Reservations available at furnacecreekresort.com

Death Valley is famous as the hottest, driest and lowest place in North America. Most days in January you can expect an extremely pleasant, sunny 70 degrees. Now is the perfect time to visit and see Scotty’s Castle.

Walter Scott, AKA Death Valley Scotty, was born in Kentucky in 1872 and worked in the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show as a cowboy. You can see the famous Scotty’s Castle and learn about its rich history through guided living-history tours conducted 365 days a year, 7 days a week. Tours last approximately 50 minutes and are given at least once every hour from November through mid-April, and less frequently in the summer. The guided tour is the only way to see inside the main house. Through April 19, 2014 tours are offered at least once an hour between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Adult $15. See nps.gov