85.5 metres below sea level

The lowest point in North America is here.

Where the water that flows from the mountains of central Nevada, hundreds of miles away, into the porous limestone bed-rock and trough an aquifer, emerges at Badwater along the faultline at the mountain’s base and forms a pool. Salts dissolve from old deposits and flow to the surface, making the spring water ”bad” – a word which here means ”salty”.

We found the pool almost dry, the saltwater flats all the more spectacular.

Badwater Basin, Death Valley, CA

April 21st, 2019