Badwater

Death Valley used to be a large lake, existing until about 10,500 years ago. The lake, named Lake Manly, was an estimated 2000 ft deep. The lake resurges every couple thousand years, but never at its deep peak. The rains brought back some of the water at Badwater, the lowest place in the US at 282 ft below sea water.

What makes this depth even more dramatic is the steep rise of the Panamint Mountains and Sierra Nevadas to the west. We peaked at almost 5,000 feet when leaving the valley through the Panamints. Mt. Whitney in the background is roughly 14,500 ft high.

The salt [white in foreground of first picture] is the bed of the ancient lake, all that was left after the water evaporated.