Badwater is not a place you stay long, but it is one you remember. A boardwalk leads out from a small parking area to a shallow pond, and beyond it stretch the salt flats, a white and crusted plain that reaches miles toward the opposite mountains. The sign on the cliff above marks sea level, a long way overhead. You are standing at 282 feet below it, the lowest point in North America, and the sun reflects off the salt with a brightness that makes sunglasses essential.
The name comes from a surveyor's story, in which a mule would not drink from the pool because the water was salty and bitter. The water is in fact full of dissolved minerals, washed down from the surrounding hills and concentrated by evaporation, and the salt crust forms intricate polygon patterns where the surface dries. Tiny snails and a few unusual insects live in the pools, which makes this an odd and delicate ecosystem. Walk on the boardwalk and a short way beyond, and avoid damaging the crust.
The ride to Badwater runs along the valley floor on Badwater Road, a well-surfaced highway that gets almost no shade. The riding is easy, with long straight stretches and gentle curves, and the scenery dominates: the Black Mountains on one side, the salt flats and Panamints on the other. Heat is the issue. In summer, temperatures can exceed forty-five degrees Celsius, and the pavement itself is scorching, so ride in the early morning or late afternoon and carry far more water than seems necessary. Never ignore heat exhaustion; it creeps up on riders more quickly than they expect.
Furnace Creek, about seventeen miles north, is the nearest place with pumps, a store, and a restaurant, and it is wise to fill up there and check your reserves. The best time to visit is in winter or early spring, when the days are warm rather than hot, and the dawn light across the flats is exceptional. Wildflowers sometimes bloom in a wet year, and the sight of the salt flat under a rare pool of water, reflecting the mountains, is hard to forget.