Many years later, after I had left home and got married, my parents took a vacation out west by themselves...but they went in the fall...and they drove across Death Valley in the later fall, and said it was completely different from Death Valley in the summer....it was much cooler, and just beautiful and they were able to enjoy it...
Altho the National Park Service does not prevent people from driving across Death Valley in the summer, they do try to discourage it...the real tourist season for Death Valley is actually October-May, the exact reverse of the way it is with most other National Parks, which have their tourist season exactly opposite...May-October...