Badwater was named by a 19thC prospector whose mule refused to drink from the salt-water pool here. What neither the prospector nor the mule probably realized was that they were standing at the lowest point in the U.S: Badwater reaches 282 feet below sea level. The actual low point is an unrewarding 4-mile trek from the car-park, which is just 3 feet higher. 

Detour – Dante’s View

More than a mile high in the Black Mountains, the view from Dante’s View is one which will bring fresh perspec­tives to the landscapes you may already have seen from the valley floor – particularly the white carpet of the Devil’s Golf Course. Dante’s View also provides a chance to see the country’s lowest and highest places: Badwater and the 14,495-ft high Mount Whitney, 60 miles distant in the Sierra Nevada mountains.