Which U.S. national park contains Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America?

Death Valley National Park contains Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America.

Badwater Basin lies in California’s Death Valley, where its salt flat reaches about 282 feet (86 metres) below sea level. The basin is an enclosed, exceptionally dry depression, so water that collects there has no route to the ocean. Evaporation leaves behind a broad crust of salts, creating the stark polygon patterns associated with the site.

The basin’s name comes from a story about an early surveyor’s mule, which reportedly refused to drink from the spring-fed pool there. The pool is not the lowest part of the basin; the salt flats extend farther across the depression. The surrounding mountains also make the elevation seem even more dramatic: Telescope Peak rises to 11,043 feet above the valley floor.

Badwater Basin is often confused with the park’s lowest elevation generally described as “Death Valley.” Death Valley is the larger valley and national park landscape; Badwater Basin is the specific geographic feature that holds the North American low-point distinction.