Death Valley National Park: Fun Facts & Family Guide

A harsh desert environment that is the hottest, driest, and lowest of all the national parks.

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The driest place in North America used to be underwater. A lake once filled this valley, stretching about 80 miles long and up to 600 feet deep.

It's called Lake Manly, and it dried up thousands of years ago. All that water had nowhere to drain, so it slowly evaporated and left its minerals behind.

Those minerals are still here. Badwater Basin is covered in a crust of salt spreading across nearly 200 square miles, cracked into strange hexagon shapes.

Badwater Basin sits 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in all of North America. Look up at the cliff behind it and you'll spot a small sign marking where sea level actually is, high above your head.

The name comes from a story about an early surveyor. His mule refused to drink from the salty pool there, so people started calling it "bad water."

The water isn't really bad. It's just extremely salty, and tiny creatures like the Badwater snail live in it happily.

Prospectors came here looking for riches in the 1800s and early 1900s. Gold strikes drew crowds fast, and boom towns like Rhyolite sprang up almost overnight.

Most didn't last. When the gold ran out, people packed up and left, leaving ghost towns behind that visitors can still walk through today.

The steadier money came from a mineral called borax, used in soaps and cleaners. Teams of twenty mules hauled it out of the valley in enormous wagons.

The area was protected as a national monument in the 1930s. Congress made it a full national park in 1994, and at 3.3 million acres, it's the largest national park in the lower 48 states.

Walk out onto the salt flats at Badwater Basin, but wear thick-soled shoes since the crust is sharp. Drive Artists Drive, a winding nine-mile road through hills streaked pink, green, and gold by old volcanic minerals. Watch the sunrise from Zabriskie Point, where wrinkled golden hills stretch out below you.