Scotty's Castle

Scotty's Castle is Death Valley's strangest landmark: a 1920s Spanish-Mediterranean villa deep in Grapevine Canyon, built not by the prospector Walter "Death Valley Scotty" Scott — who spun the legend of a secret gold mine — but by Chicago insurance magnate Albert Johnson, who bankrolled it, owned it, and somehow stayed lifelong friends with the con man who took the credit. The essential 2026 fact: the castle interior has been closed since the October 2015 flash flood, its ~$90 million restoration stretched further by a 2021 fire and historic rains in 2022 and 2024.

The only way in today is a ranger-led "flood recovery" grounds walking tour — $35 a person, booked at least 48 hours ahead through the Death Valley Natural History Association, capped at 20 people, cool-season Sundays only. The 2026 season (January–March) sold out and has ended; the next window will appear on the NPS site. A full reopening has been floated for as early as fall 2026, but the date has slipped for a decade — treat it as hope, not schedule. It's a 3-hour, 150-mile drive from Las Vegas at the park's remote north end, and you'll pay Death Valley's ~$30 vehicle entry on top — which is why, for now, this is a page for planning ahead rather than driving out today.