Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America at 282 ft below sea level. You are walking on the salts left behind after years of evaporation and climate changes. When the basin is flooded, some of the salt is dissolved; it is redeposited as clean crystals when the water evaporates.

Badwater Basin is one of the coolest places on our travels ever. We hiked straight out into the emptiness. It is a one mile walk to the edge of the salt flats, and litterary miles and miles of just salt surrounded by the death valley mountains.

The magic at the end of the road is hard to describe. You have to experience it for yourself. We saw the sunset in the evening over the Badwater and its a sight that touches your soul.

Kids had a blast trying to taste the salts from the ground. It is very tempting! Don’t miss the sea level sign on the side of the cliff.

The Natural Bridges like the name suggests is a geological bridge formation between the canyons in the death valley mountains. You are walking along a dried up riverbed, and can imagine the abundance of water that might have existed several million years ago.

All along the way the kids had a blast climbing up and down the various chutes that were created from the flooded waters years ago. We continued on the canyon walk passing the natural bridge, and found the a real gem. The trail ends at a dried up waterfall, which you can climb up into.

We all had such a blast, and ended up bouldering into the dried up waterfall, and even our youngest was able to venture into.

The walk back into the parking lot is a real delight. You get a great overview of badwater basin and the death valley floor on the way back and makes for great photo opp!

The youngest was convinced that we were on Mars, far away from Earth.!

This is an easy short hike (about 2.5 miles to the Red Cathedral and back) along a valley floor.

Any where in Dealth valley make sure to pack plenty of water. You will find advanced hikers on this hike, since you can also do a 6 mile loop to the Lower gulch area and 10 miles to Zabriski Point . It would make a great hike for older kids as well!

The canyons are distinctively yellow and the end at the Red canyon is beautiful as well. We didn't make it all the way to the red catheral, but the pictures look gorgeous!

Highly recommend this trail with the kids, specially if you are visiting Death valley during Spring (Feb-April).

The boardwalk is open year-round, however, water only flows down to the boardwalk from November through May. During the Spring, you can see the Salt Creek Pupfish - which are a unique to this area in the Mojave dessert.

The water was shallow and the length of the creek was not very long. The kids loved watching the small pupfish swimming upstream, there were blue which were the males and the yellow females.

These pupfish have been classified as endangered species - they are thought to be the remainders of the fish species that lived in Lake Manly, which dried up at the end of the last ice age leaving the present-day Death Valley

Do not miss this site when visiting Death Valley!