A visitor got third-degree burns on his feet while walking barefoot on the sand dunes in California's Death Valley National Park.

The first of 97 runners are starting to hit the finish line after pushing off in desolate Death Valley for an annual ultramarathon billed as the world’s toughest foot race.

Crews worked to dig roads, buildings and care home residents out of the mud across a wide swath of Southwestern U.S. desert Monday, after a tropical storm to hit Southern California.

A historic heat wave that has blasted the U.S. Southwest throughout July is showing signs of abating with late-arriving monsoon rains.

Authorities say a main roadway into Death Valley National Park will remain closed into next week as crews clean up after record-breaking rains damaged the roadway and choked it with mud, rocks and debris.

Death Valley, California, has been living up to its name this weekend.