Lake Manly, Death Valley National Park, March 9, 2024

Made it up to Death Valley over the weekend. Drove up on Saturday, March 9. Stopped at Dante's View on the way in, to get a view of the Badwater Basin from above. Then drove around and down to Badwater, itself, to see "Lake Manly" from the water's edge. That's roughly an hour drive, from Dante's View, by the way. Well under three miles of walking for the day, with maybe a mile up to near the "peak" of Dante's View, and 1/2 mile around Badwater. So not an offical hike, by itself. But something worth blogging and seeing.

"Lake Manly" was one of several names given to the recurring terminal lake at Badwater Basin. During ice age periods, the lake is large and persistent. During more recent periods, it has appeared only rarely, after major water events, such as when the remains of Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Tropical Disturbance Hillary came through. Heavy rains returned in February of this year, expanding the lake and making it a sight to see. So we wished to see it. This'll be the first of three posts I'll make over the next week or so, from that trip.

From Dante View (no restroom facilities at the top, btw, but a vault toilet down the road about a 1/2 or 3/4 of a mile), I could see an area far below, where Badwater Road appeared to approach very close to the shoreline of Lake Manly. Later, as I drove south on Badwater Road, I could see an alluvial fan that appeared to pour right into the lake, meaning, a steep incline of dry land to the lake, and a possible dry approach to the water's edge. While I ended up parking near Badwater and walking out from there, my walk did confirm that I could have approached from that alluvial fan and reached the water a lot quicker.

It was crowded, but that was to be expected. Still, arriving as late was we did, I was able to park just 150 yards or so from the lot. Vault toilets there.

Kind of a party atmosphere, with many people trying for their instagram moment. You could walk along the narrow outlet from the Badwater Spring, over salty and mostly dry crust. The farther you walked, the more the dry spots thinned, and you'd be walking in toe-deep brine. Because this was normally a salt flat, you could walk hundreds of yards, while still having water only toe deep. Yes, great for a "walking on water" look.

Depending on where you stopped and how you framed your shot, you could get a bit of privacy and a wide open view over a smooth, glass-like surface, or an isolation shot, or a shot with posing people overlapping, as far as the eye could see.

The water is evaporating quickly. It was no longer deep enough (about a foot) for reliable kayaking, and the surface area was maybe 1/3 of what it was a month or so previous. But it's still a picturesque mirror for the desert and mountains surrounding the basin. If you just want to get to the water, I'd suggest parking 1/4 mile or so south of the Badwater parking area, just past mile marker 17. That's on the alluvial fan, that allows for a short, dry walk to the water's edge. For "walking on water" shots, maybe walk from the edge a bit further north and east.

The last shot was the next morning, driving down the Beatty Road cutoff. I was considering an early morning visit, but it would have required an addiitonal 1/2 hour of driving to Badwater, then turn around and heading north, towards Ubehebe Crater, which I hadn't been to, yet, and was a priority for me to see, this trip. So figure at least 90 minues later, and over an hour additional driving, for what was already going to be a fair amount of driving. So we elected to turn back towards Ubehebe Crater, forgoing a chance at a morning view of Lake Manly, up close.