Badwater Basin in Death Valley

Death Valley located within the Mojave Desert, is noted for being the lowest and driest area in North America. It holds the world’s record for the highest recorded air temperature, 134 °F (57 °C) on July 10, 1913, at Furnace Creek. It is also has the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below sea level at Badwater Basin. One of my friends said she thinks it is now confirmed as the lowest place in the world.  Clearly it is a place of extremes.

I arrived in the evening and didn't explore much until the morning when I drove to Badwater to watch the sunrise. As I stood there I half way expected to feel something like reverse altitude sickness but all I felt was cold.

 
The salt flats were incrediable and I couldn’t get over the quiet and vastness of the area. There were only 3 other people there, a young couple and Susan Taylor a professional photographer.

That is Susan in the distance.

 
I tasted the salt and it really was salty. Blah! How salty was it?  It is so salty that it is four times saltier than the ocean.

 
What little water there is, is not poisonous just salty. When a surveyor mapping this area could not get his mule to drink from the pool, he wrote on his map that the spring had "bad water," and the name stuck. 

I took many photos as I watched the sun rise.
 

We were hoping to catch the sparkle of the sun on the salt but the sun was taking a very long time to reach the ground because we were so far below sea level. That little speck on the hill side is a sign that says “Sea Level”.
 

 Amazing place.