Badwater is an area of perrenial saltwater springs along the rangefront of the Black Mountains in Death Valley. Badwater is the close to the lowest point in Death Valley (and North America) at -282 feet in elevation ( located somewhere in an lower left of this image). Note the series of small alluvial fans along the range front where small streams drain onto the valley floor. Most of the valley floor is a saltpan of a former great lake bed (prehistoric Lake Manley). The saltpan is called "Devils Golfcourse." Scale (1:48,000); north is to the left; to see a ground-based image of this area, click here.