When dried up, these pans look almost white in color, due to the high concentration of salt. Another important source of water for Sossusvlei is the moisture from the daily morning fogs that enter the desert from the Atlantic Ocean.

Fauna in the Sossusvlei area is surprisingly rich in variety. It mostly comprises small animals that can survive with little water, including a number of arthropods, small reptiles, and small mammals (such as rodents or jackals). Bigger animals include antelopes (mainly oryxes and springboks) and ostriches. On the rare occasion that the pans flood, several migrant bird species might be found in the water. Much of the Sossusvlei and Namib fauna is endemic and highly adapted to the specific conditions of the Namib, for instance, the Namib Desert Beetle which has developed a technique for collecting water from the early morning fog with the help of the specially adapted bumps on its back.

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Dune 45 is so called because it lies 45 km past Sesriem on the road to Sossusvlei. It is 80 meters high and it is composed of 5-million-year-old sands.

Sossusvlei is about 66 km past the Sesriem gate. The last 6 km can only be traversed with 4WD vehicles as the metalled road ends and sand begins (the place where the metalled road ends is known as "2x4 parking" as any non-4WD vehicle must stop there). Sossusvlei is a clay pan, of roughly elliptical shape, covered in a crust of salt-rich sand. While the pan has been shaped over time by the Tsauchab river, the actual flooding of the pan is a relatively rare event, and sometimes several years pass between one flood and the next one. The river is dry most of the year, and even when it is not, it carries relatively little water to the vlei. The vlei is surrounded by high orange-reddish dunes, partially covered by a vegetation comprising grass, bushes, and some trees.

 

Big Daddy is the highest dune in the Sossusvlei area, at about 325 meters. Big Daddy is located past Sossusvlei proper, near Deadvlei. It faces another very high dune known as "Big Mama".

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Deadvlei is another clay pan, about 2 km from Sossusvlei. A notable feature of Deadvlei is that it used to be an oasis with several camelthorn trees; afterwards, the river that watered the oasis changed its course. The pan is thus punctuated by blackened, dead camelthorn trees, in vivid contrast to the shiny white of the salty floor of the pan and the intense orange of the dunes. This creates a particularly fascinating and surrealistic landscape, that appears in innumerable pictures and has been used as a setting for films and videos.

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Since Sossusvlei is possibly the foremost attraction of Namibia, much has been done by the Namibian authorities to support and facilitate tourism in the area. The asphalt road was built in the early 2000s (decade) to connect Sesriem and Sossusvlei's 2x4 parking is one of the very few non-urban metalled roads in Namibia. Numerous places of accommodation are found along the border of the National Park, between Sesriem and the nearest settlement, Solitaire. Recently, accommodation has been built inside the park. It is also possible to take scenic flights over the dunes, either with small planes (mainly from Swakopmund and Walvis Bay) or in hot air balloons (departing from Sesriem in the morning).

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