Badwater Basin, California

Badwater Basin is home to the lowest point in North America

Ready to explore one of the coolest, or should I say hottest, spots on Earth? Welcome to Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, a place that’s literally the lowest of the low—282 feet below sea level! Imagine walking on the moon, but instead, it’s a massive, crunchy salt flat that stretches as far as the eye can see. The salt crystals glisten like diamonds under the blazing sun, making you feel like you’ve stepped into a giant, sparkly pancake.

Stories suggest that Badwater Basin earned its name when a mule belonging to an early surveyor refused to drink from the spring-fed pool near the present-day boardwalk. However, the water here is not truly “bad,” just very salty. Despite this high salinity, many organisms not only survive, but thrive here. The pool is home to an endemic snail naturally found only at this location, and its rim is dotted with salt tolerant plants, including pickleweed. 

The pool and boardwalk are easily accessible from the parking lot off Badwater Road, but the best views of the salt polygons require an easy 1.5-2 mile (2.4-3.2 km) roundtrip walk out onto the salt flats.

Despite its name, Badwater Basin is anything but bad! The name comes from a small, undrinkable pool of water that tricked some early explorers, but don’t let that fool you—this place is all about adventure. It’s so flat that you can see the curvature of the Earth, and on a cool day, you might even catch a glimpse of some brave wildlife tiptoeing across the salt.

 The famous Twenty Mule Teams. These “big teams” pulled massive wagons hauling borax from Harmony Borax Works near Furnace Creek to the railhead near Mojave, a grueling 165 mile, ten day trip across primitive roads. Although the teams only ran for six years–1883 to 1889–they have made an enduring impression of the Old West. This is primarily due to a successful advertising campaign promoting 20-Mule-Team Borax Soap

After borax was found near Furnace Creek Ranch (then called Greenland) in 1881, William T. Coleman built the Harmony plant and began to process ore in late 1883 or early 1884. When in full operation, the Harmony Borax Works employed 40 men who produced three tons of borax daily. During the summer months, when the weather was so hot that processing water would not cool enough to permit the suspended borax to crystallize, Coleman moved his work force to the Amargosa Borax Plant near present day Tecopa, California.