Badwater basin landscape

The picture shows the lowest point in North America, Badwater Basin. It is located in the heart of the Death Valley National Park, Inyo County, California, the USA. This point is at 282 ft (86 m) below sea level and it is situated 84.6 miles (136.2 km) east-southeast of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States.

One part of Badwater Basin is covered with a natural pool with water that comes from a spring and it is undrinkable (but not poisonous) because of so much salt, therefore it is called 'Badwater'.

The landscape of Badwater Basin also includes layers of salt crust measuring up to almost 2 m in some places. This is caused by temporary lakes from floods where the water evaporates and the dissolved salts precipitate out creating new layers of salt.

Temperatures on this place are very high, reaching 50 °C in summer. This photo was taken in October with a temperature of 32 °C.