Death Valley national park is located 4-5h drive east of LA. Long time ago this was a lake, and now is death hot (even in the winter) dessert with nice stones, sand dunes and traces from lava. The bottom of the lake (now empty) is 282 feet under the see level (and it's almost dry). It has a nice sunsets here from Dantes View, missing the smoke in LA to spoil the view.