Death Valley National Park enters 'water era' with kayaking on limited-time lake
A person drags a paddle board as tourists enjoy the rare opportunity to walk in water as they visit Badwater Basin, the normally driest place in the US, in Death Valley National Park, Inyo County, California on February 19, 2024. (Photo by David SWAN
For a limited time, visitors to Death Valley National Park can paddle out on a temporary lake after rounds of flooding rain from atmospheric rivers repeatedly slammed into California and leftover rains from Hurricane Hilary.
The National Park Service said park visitors have a rare opportunity to enjoy some water activities in the driest place in the U.S. after enough rainwater created what rangers are calling Lake Manly in the Badwater Basin.
"You might think with no drain to the sea, that Death Valley would always have a lake," park ranger Abby Wines said. "But this is an extremely rare event. Normally, the amount of water flowing in is much less than the evaporation rate."
A kid plays with water as tourists enjoy the rare opportunity to see water as they visit Badwater Basin, the normally driest place in the US, in Death Valley National Park, Inyo County, California on February 18, 2024. (Photo by David SWANSON / AFP)
Rangers said the normally dry salt flat has water about 3 miles wide and one foot deep, just enough for a kayak. However, rangers say the water will only be deep enough to paddle for a few weeks, but it will make for a beautiful sight through April.
"We are fully embracing our water era," the park wrote on Facebook, in a quip to Taylor Swift's Eras tour.
How a lake formed in the driest place in the U.S.
Over the past six months, Death Valley has received nearly 5 inches of rain – more than double the amount of rain it typically sees in a year.
Most of the water was leftover from the 2.2 inches from the remnants of Hurricane Hilary in August 2023. The storm caused parts of the park to flood, leading to road closures. Then, between February 4 and 7 this year, the park received 1.5 inches of rainfall during a parade of atmospheric rivers.
A series of NASA satellite images show Lake Manly in the Badwater Basin at Death Valley National Park. (Images: NASA Earth Observatory images by Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.)
Now that the park roads are back open, visitors can enjoy this lake while it lasts.
Several NASA satellites captured the changes to the Badwater Basin since last summer. According to NASA, the satellite images below show the desert basin before the flooding in July 2023, August 2023 after Hilary and then in February with the most recent flooding rains.
Rangers initially thought the August rains from Hilary would be gone by October. However, after six months, Lake Manly is still there.