It’s hard to imagine a lake 30 feet deep once covered the valley floor here at Devil’s Golf Course and Badwater Basin.
The salt crystal formations are made up of the minerals that were dissolved in the lake’s water and were left behind as the lake evaporated.
Devil’s Golf Course is said to be named after the comment that "Only the devil himself could play golf" on its surface due to a rough texture from the large salt crystal formations.
Since this area is at a slightly higher elevation than Badwater Basin, the Devil’s Golf Course remains dry unlike the basin. Here, weather continues the process of sculpting the salt into unusual forms.
I had an ‘aha’ moment as I saw clear examples of the ‘southwest motif’ looking up at the surrounding mountains. The multicolor sawtooth design in the mountainside is clearly the inspiration for the pattern used in early pottery, blankets, etc. Early settlers in the west simply looked up and painted or sewed the vision that nature laid out for them. Beautiful!
Devil’s Golf Course Photos
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