Updated: Jul 31
Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park
Badwater Basin, probably the most popular attraction in Death Valley National Park, is one of those places that you just have to see to believe, and the good news is that it’s surprisingly close to a few major cities. It’s the lowest point in all of North America - we’re talking BELOW sea level - but since Death Valley usually gets less than 2 inches of rain a year, it’s bone dry… unless you time it just right.
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What is Badwater Basin?
Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. That’s right, BELOW sea level. It was once an ancient lake that evaporated tens of thousands of years ago, so it is now an enormous salt flat. It’s covered with what is essentially table salt (95% sodium chloride, with some gypsum, calcite, and borax) and spans over 200 square miles. If you look closely at the surrounding mountains, you can see lines on them that indicate the water levels of the ancient lake.
Sometimes, the site contains what they call “bad water”, hence the name, and forms what is called Lake Manly. In reality, the water isn’t necessarily bad, but it has such a high level of salinity that it’s pointless to drink. Some sources say the water is twice as salty as the ocean. According to legend, a prospective miner was in the area in 1849 and his burro refused to drink the water, giving it the name Badwater Basin.
The salt forms after rain on the surrounding mountain peaks drains down to the lowest point, picking up minerals along the way. As the water evaporates, the minerals concentrate until only salt is left. After thousands of years, it’s made enough salt to create layers upon layers of it, forming a crust. This still occurs today with the appearance of Lake Manly, but it is extremely rare because the evaporation rate of 150 inches per year will usually decimate any water collection from the average 2 inches of annual rainfall in Death Valley. This means that even when Lake Manly does appear, it doesn’t stick around for long. The most recent years Lake Manly has appeared were 2024, 2023, and 2005, when record rainfall covered the region and caused flash floods in Death Valley.
Where is Badwater Basin?
I’m assuming you’re perceptive enough from this article so far to have picked up that Badwater Basin is in Death Valley, but where is Death Valley and where in it is Badwater Basin?
You can technically get to Death Valley in a 2 hour drive from Las Vegas, the closest major city, or a 4.5 hour drive from Los Angeles. That means you could easily visit on a day trip from Las Vegas, but you’ll want to stay at least 1 night if you’re visiting from Los Angeles. However, getting to Badwater Basin will take you an additional 30 minutes of driving through the park if you’re coming from Las Vegas and an additional hour if coming from Los Angeles. All of this is assuming that all of the roads to get into the park are open, but sometimes they have to be closed due to damages. More on that in the next section below.
Once you’re inside Death Valley National Park, Badwater Basin will be fairly easy to find. The main hub of the park is Furnace Creek, where you can find a Visitor Center, and Badwater Basin is 18 miles south of there, past several of the park’s other popular attractions. The drive takes about 30 minutes.
How to Get to Badwater Basin
To get to Badwater Basin, you will need a car; there is no public transportation going to or operating within Death Valley National Park. If you don’t own a car or will be flying into a nearby city for your visit, we recommend looking into affordable rental cars through Turo. (We are not partnered with Turo; we just use them a lot 🙂) It’s also worth noting that we recommend an SUV for visiting Death Valley National Park, because although Badwater Basin is located off of a paved road, several other attractions in the park require driving down rough dirt and gravel roads, and some roads require experienced drivers with 4-wheel-drive vehicles. Just something to think about when you’re deciding what car to take.
Note: you will be able to see the salt flats of Badwater Basin long before reaching the part designated for visitors, where there is a small, paved parking lot, a restroom, and a boardwalk that marks the walking path out onto the salt flats.
Now, about road closures: Death Valley roads can sometimes be severely damaged, especially if there’s been flooding, so you should check your route against road closures on the National Park Service website here before departing. Do not rely solely on Google Maps!
Speaking of not relying on Google Maps, data service to load the app is practically nonexistent in Death Valley, so you need to make sure you know where you’re going before you take off. You can get a free paper map at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, which you will especially want if you’re visiting for more than a day trip.
Whatever direction you take, be aware: there are long stretches where services (gas, water, restrooms, etc) aren’t available for 70 miles at a time. Make sure to have your car properly fueled, try not to run the car’s A/C in the summer to avoid overheating (the hottest temperature ever recorded on the planet was in Death Valley), and carry extra jugs of water in your car. You will be gaining and losing thousands of feet in elevation as you travel around the national park.
Best Time to Visit Badwater Basin
The first thing you have to consider when timing your visit to Death Valley is the weather in the month you will be there, because the heat is no joke. Here’s some basic info:
Coolest month: December
Average high 65°F (18°C)
Average low 39°F (4°C)
Hottest month: July
Average high 116°F (47°C)
Average low 88°F (31°C)
Most popular month to visit Death Valley: March
Average high 82°F (28°C)
Average low 55°F (13°C)
That brings us to the next point you should consider: how crowded it will be. Looking at the numbers from 2022-2024, the most popular months to visit Death Valley are:
March, with an average of 169,589 visitors. (That’s 5,471 people per day.)
April, averaging 131,909 visitors. (4,397 per day)
February, averaging 126,383 visitors. (4,514 per day)
In contrast, the least popular months to visit Death Valley are:
October, with an average of 49,285 visitors. (That’s 1,590 per day.)
September, averaging 56,802 visitors. (1,893 per day)
August, averaging 67,267 visitors. (2,170 per day)
We are working on another blog article with loads of information about the best times to visit Death Valley National Park, so make sure you’re signed up for our newsletter so you’ll be notified when it comes out if you’re interested in more info.
As far as the time of day to visit Badwater Basin, the earlier, the better. Watching sunrise is a big thing in Death Valley National Park, because once the sun is up, the temperature rises rapidly and it generally stays hotter for longer. You can learn about why that is when you visit the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. The point is that you definitely want to go before 10am if you’re visiting during a hotter month, and if you’re REALLY a morning person, Badwater Basin could be a cool place to watch the sunrise.
Parking is limited at Badwater Basin too, so getting there early will give you a better chance of getting a spot, especially if you’re visiting during the more popular months.
If you’re not enough of a morning person to catch the sunrise, it’s not so bad for sunset either, although without Lake Manly there, you might prefer to go to Zabriskie Point or the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes for sunset instead. (More information about those attractions coming soon!)
Cost to Visit Badwater Basin
There is an entry fee to visit Death Valley National Park, but there is no cost to see Badwater Basin itself past that. The entrance fees for Death Valley National Park are as follows:
Private car: everyone in the car gets in for $30 total.
Motorcycle: everyone on the motorcycle (hopefully not more than 2 people 👀), gets in for $25 total.
On foot (but I don’t know why you would want to do that) or bicycle: $15 per person.
Annual Pass: $55. More info below.
Interagency Pass (aka America the Beautiful): $80. More info below.
Other rules apply for educational and commercial use. See the NPS website for more info.
Student Passes are also available for families including 4th graders from California and 5th graders from Nevada. You can also look into getting passes through Every Kid Outdoors.
There are also select free days! More info below.
Every private car, motorcycle, and per person (on foot/bicycle) fee covers 7 days to enjoy Death Valley National Park.
An annual pass for Death Valley works the same way as a private car or motorcycle pass, in the fact that everyone in the car / on the motorcycle gets in with the cardholder at no additional charge, but it’s good for 12 months. This pass will only get you into Death Valley National Park, but if you want to visit other national parks too, read the next paragraph…
An interagency pass, aka the America the Beautiful Pass, ranges from free to $80. Most visitors will pay $80, unless you are a US citizen and also a senior, veteran, federal recreation site volunteer, or are permanently disabled. No matter which version of the pass you get, it covers entrance and day use fees at over 2,000 federally managed properties throughout the United States, essentially acting as your one private car or motorcycle entrance fee or four per person entrance fees, and it just might also get you discounts on things like camping. This is the pass we use and recommend!
Entrance fees can be paid anytime, day or night, at kiosks that are stationed around the park. One such kiosk is near the vault toilets at the Badwater Basin boardwalk. However, if you want to purchase an annual pass or America the Beautiful Pass, you’ll have to do that during business hours at either the Furnace Creek Visitor Center or Stovepipe Wells Ranger Station, or the Furnace Creek Campground if you’re visiting between October 15 - April 15.
For the most up-to-date information about entrance fees, visit the NPS website here. Make sure you don’t forget to pay your entrance fee, because national parks are federal land and carry stiff penalties for not following the law. Also remember, the money you spend here helps maintain the park, so you can feel good knowing it’s not just lining the pockets of another billionaire.
As for the free days, the national parks can get quite crowded, but if you don’t mind that then the dates are as follows:
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (3rd Monday in January)
First day of National Park Week (April)
Juneteenth (June 19)
Great American Outdoors Act Day (August 4)
National Public Lands Day (September)
Veterans Day (November 11)
Our Experience
We were already planning our trip to Death Valley for April 2024 when the news came that Lake Manly had appeared due to the heavy rainfall in February. Lake Manly had not been visible to the public since 2005, because although it did technically appear in September 2023 because of Hurricane Hilary, the floods damaged the roads in Death Valley so badly that the park was forced to close for the entire month. People rushed out to see it when it reappeared in February and March of 2024, and we assumed that it would sadly be dried up by the time we got out there in mid-April, but thankfully we were wrong! We went to Badwater Basin on the first day of the off-peak season (which also happened to be Adam’s birthday!), when temperatures start to climb in Death Valley but aren’t too unbearable yet.
The parking situation was a bit tricky, with a lot of people still lingering in the park from peak season. There are several parking spots for cars, and a few more for RVs and campers that run perpendicular to the car spots for parallel parking (which seems like it would be a nightmare for those big vehicles, but I digress). Unfortunately, there weren’t any car spots left, so we parked in one of the RV spots, leaving enough room for another person to park behind us. I can only imagine how tough it is to get a parking spot here in the PEAK peak season in March.
There are two ramps that head down to the boardwalk that leads to the salt flat. Be aware that everything in the area - the boardwalk, the ramps, the one set of stairs heading down, and most of the parking lot - is covered in salt, dragged up on the soles of the shoes from the visitors before you. It makes the place look like it’s been snowing, which is comical with the heat. The soles of our shoes were caked in salt by the time we were done too, mostly thanks to that little bit of moisture leftover in the salt even from where it looked dry. We did our best to knock off as much as possible before getting back into our car, but there’s no getting rid of it. My black sneakers are a little more grey than black now.
From the parking area, the walk down the salt flat to Lake Manly was about a half-mile. There is absolutely no shade during the day, so be very, very aware of bringing water to drink while out on the flat. During summer, it is not recommended to go out on the flat after 10am (or do much of anything outdoors in the park), as temperatures regularly soar into the 120s. We visited at 1pm in mid-April and it was around 100°, which was still kind of brutal, so please do not take the heat lightly. Carry water with you at all times, reapply your sunscreen, and wear a hat. We also carried our Frogg Togg towels around with us everywhere in the park and it made a HUGE difference. With all that being said though, even if you visit Badwater Basin at a time without Lake Manly, you really do need to walk all the way out onto the salt flat to get the full effect of how enormous it is; don’t just stay on the boardwalk!
Pro Tip: Reapply sunscreen before you walk out onto the salt flat - the white salt reflects the sunlight back up at you and there is no escaping it.
Before walking out onto the salt flat, we stopped to take the obligatory picture of the ‘282 feet below sea level’ sign and turned around to see where the actual sea level is, which is indicated by a small sign on the mountain behind you. It’s hard to spot, but it’s there! This is also the perfect time to look for those lines on the mountains that show where the water levels of the ancient lake used to be.
It’s also worth noting that the highest point in Death Valley, Telescope Peak, towers at 11,043 feet, meaning it’s 11,325 feet above you (that’s over 2 miles!) on the opposite side of the salt flat. In fact, the highest point in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney, is just 86 miles away too, which you can climb if you’re up for the challenge.
At the time we visited, the ground immediately surrounding the boardwalk was the texture of what the Devil’s Golf Course looks like, with big chunks of mud that have dried up and cracked horribly. It’s important that you respect the boardwalk in this area and don’t walk onto those surfaces, as it could scar the landscape until the next flood. The same goes for “writing” in the salt, which we unfortunately saw a lot of people had done. Please don’t be that person. Respect the landscape.
After we walked out to the edge of shrinking Lake Manly, we opted to take off our shoes and socks and walk into the lake, which was only ankle deep by then thanks to that crazy evaporation rate we mentioned earlier. The shallowness of it also made it feel that much more surreal, though. We’d heard from several YouTube videos that the water had softened the crystalized salt, making it nice to walk on with bare feet, and there were plenty of people around us walking through it with no problem, so we were not prepared at all for how much the salt would wreck our feet. I took it very slow, almost every step being painful on my sensitive skin. I kept pushing myself to go further out into the water because I thought it would get better, but it didn’t. It didn’t seem to bother Adam as much, but by the time he walked back to the car (bare feet the whole way), his feet hurt for the rest of the day and even into the next. So unless you’re used to walking around outside barefoot all the time, we highly recommend bringing water shoes to walk through Lake Manly. At the very least, wear sandals for this outing, because getting your (probably sweaty) socks back on after walking through this extremely salty water is not fun.
The next day, we visited Dante’s View to see the absolute majesty of Badwater Basin and Lake Manly from above, which we cannot recommend enough. Afterwards, we quickly descended back down to Badwater Basin to catch the sunset at Lake Manly, since there’s little chance we will personally ever have that opportunity again. Despite the fact that Dante’s View sits right above Badwater Basin, the only way back to the basin’s parking area is a 40 minute drive around the mountains, during which you descend 5,575 feet. It’s wonderfully scenic, but it does take time. Dante’s View would be a nice place to watch sunset, but when Lake Manly is there, the still water acts like a mirror (at least, when people aren’t walking around stirring it up), making for some amazing views.
We wanted to stay to look at some stars, which would also look amazing reflected in Lake Manly, but our trip coincided with a half-moon that was perfectly centered above us in the sky every night, giving off enough moonlight to make it hard to make out any but the brightest stars in the night sky. There was also a surprising amount of bugs that came out at Lake Manly around sunset, which were not present during our afternoon visit the day before. There also was zero lighting on the paved road to get back to Furnace Creek and we saw maybe one other car still on the road after dark. So there’s another pro tip for you: take bug spray for stargazing, plan your trip around when the new moon happens, and make sure your headlights are working!
Our Verdict
Badwater Basin is an astonishing sight to behold, as is all of Death Valley. The fact that you can walk out onto a salt flat this massive makes you feel small, and getting to experience Lake Manly felt like an opportunity we will personally probably never get again. Knowing that you’re below sea level at the lowest point in North America is a weird thrill, and then to look up at the water lines on the surrounding mountains towering above you, marking where the lake used to be 10,000+ years ago, makes you realize just how short of a time you’re here in this huge, ever-changing world. If you’re in Vegas, Death Valley is worth at least making a day trip out of, and if you’re in California, this is a perfect example of how incredibly diverse the landscapes are in our great state. Come experience the sheer wonder of how strange this world can be.
Quick Reference Guide
What | Badwater Basin, the lowest elevation point in North America |
Where | Death Valley National Park, Central California |
How to Get There | No public transport to or within Death Valley. By car, 5.5 hours from Los Angeles, 2.5 hours from Las Vegas, or 30 minutes south of the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. |
Best Time to Go | Best month depends on how you want to balance good weather and crowds. March is the most popular. Go before 10am in hotter months. |
Time Commitment | Plan to spend about 1 hour here. Technically, Badwater Basin is open 24 hours a day, but during summer, get there early before the blazing sun makes it impossible to enjoy. Nighttime is also good for stargazing, when the conditions are right. |
Cost | Death Valley National Park has a $30 per vehicle fee, a $25 per motorcycle fee, or a $15 individual fee if you’re entering on foot or a bicycle. Machines for payment are located throughout the park, including one at Badwater Basin. No additional payment to visit Badwater Basin. |
Reservation Info | No reservations offered. During peak season, parking will fill up fast, so go as early as possible. |
Our Verdict | One of the strangest places on Earth, it’s a must see at least once in your lifetime. |
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