Salt places to visit · Death Valley National Park, California

Badwater Basin

By The Salt AlmanacUpdated November 8, 2026

The lowest point in North America: a salt flat 282 feet below sea level, patterned with salt polygons.

Raised slabs and ridges of white salt crust on the Badwater salt flats — As salt crystals grow, slabs of the crust at Badwater Basin are pushed up and eroded.National Park Service. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Image source

At a glance

Where	Inyo County, Death Valley National Park, California
Type of place	Salt flat
What you'll see	A spring-fed pool of salty “bad water” and a vast salt crust pushed into hexagonal shapes by freezing, thawing and evaporation.
How low	282 feet (86 m) below sea level, the lowest point in the United States and North America.
Why so much salt	About 1.9 inches of rain a year against an evaporation rate of about 150 inches, so water vanishes and salt stays.
Take care	The salt crust can be a thin layer over mud, so stay on well-trodden ground.

Plan your visit: official information

The salt story

After big storms, the basin floods with a shallow temporary lake, Lake Manly, which soon evaporates. Despite the name, the pool is alive: pickleweed, aquatic insects and the tiny Badwater snail live there. A crater on Mars, the lowest point on that planet, is named Badwater after it.

Hours, seasons and prices change. Check with the site before you travel.

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Cite this page

For school projects and reports. Teachers often prefer the original sources too: see the list below.

The Salt Almanac. (2026, November 8). Badwater basin. https://saltalmanac.com/places/badwater-basin

Original sources

Wikipedia. Badwater Basin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badwater_Basin