Daily Photo – Badwater, lowest point in the US!
Badwater Basin - lowest point in the USA (Click image for larger view)

Daily Photo – Badwater, lowest point in the US!

Badwater Basin - lowest point in the USA
Badwater Basin - lowest point in the USA (Click image for larger view)

So I think it's obligatory to visit Badwater if you're in Death Valley. Badwater is the lowest point in the USA at 282ft (85m) below sea level. Actually, the lowest point is some distance from here but this is where the sign is (far left) that everyone photographs. Set into the cliffs behind me is a sea level marker. Unless you zoom in on the marker, it almost never shows up in photos that attempt to show the vertical scale.

There's a pull-out here to park in and steps and a ramp down to the salt. The decking here allows you to walk out over the brackish pool of water without risk of sinking in the foul goop under the crust. Sometimes you can see the Salt Creek pupfish in the water here – remnants of the the fish that use to live here when this was a lake several thousand years ago.

As you can see, you can also walk out onto the salt flat here, the ramp and deck accommodating wheel chairs. From this view it looks as though these folks should be skating on ice instead of crunching across the salt!

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Production Data

Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens (B&H)
Processing: Lightroom 3.6
Processing: Photomatix 4.02
Processing:
Processing: Nik Software Color Efex Pro 4 Complete Edition (B&H)