It's one of those ultra-rare California events that if you don't jump on it now, you might miss it for good. Death Valley is now home to an inland lake open to kayaking.
The shallow body of water, informally called Lake Manly, emerged after the atmospheric river from Feb. 4-7 as precipitation collected in the park's Badwater Basin, creating a lake that's about six miles long, three miles wide and one foot deep.
It's not the first time a lake like this has appeared after the rains — though it's something of a once-in-a-generation event. Lake Manly most recently emerged due to rains from the remnants of Hurricane Hilary — though due to flash floods that destroyed park roads and cut off public access, park visitors couldn't see the lake for themselves until the water had nearly dried up. Before that, the last time Badwater Basin collected enough water to kayak was in the winter of 2004-2005.
While the public couldn't kayak in the lake after the rains from Hilary, that rainfall laid the foundation for the most recent iteration of Lake Manly resurface. In early February just before the atmospheric river moved through Death Valley, about half of the lake was still around from last year's rains, which helped the basin fill up again.
First things first: If you want to go kayaking in what's normally one of the driest places on the planet, you've got to do it soon. Visitors have at most a couple more weeks to get out there and paddle Lake Manly — the water doesn't drain to the ocean due to the low elevation, but it's only expected to be deep enough to kayak for another week or two, based on projections from the National Park Service.
If you can't get to Death Valley right away, the lake will likely still be there for another couple months — though you'll have to resort to taking pictures rather than paddling the waters yourself. The lake is expected to disappear fully by April, when the temperature heats up and accelerates the its evaporation.
But even that might be worth the trip to go out and see for yourself, said Death Valley park ranger Abby Wines.
"It's particularly beautiful anytime when it's not windy, and the surface will turn into a glass surface that reflects the surroundings," Wines said. "The surroundings are tall mountains. The mountain immediately west of the lake is 11,000 feet tall."
One last thing for any boaters: Since it's the desert and everything, make sure to BYOK (bring your own kayak).
"As you might imagine, there's no place around here to rent a kayak because this is such a rare opportunity," Wines said.
If you've been to Badwater Basin before, you're probably used to it seeing an expansive reach of salt flats flanked by mountains. Most rainstorms that reach Death Valley are subject to a dry "rainshadow" effect that keeps precipitation from hitting the ground, so Badwater Basin rarely gets enough water to hold a lake.
Between 2004 and 2023, lakes formed only twice: in 2008 and in the winter of 2015-16, though Wines said neither body of water was deep enough to kayak in. Going much further back to the ice age, a salt lake existed in Badwater Basin as recently as 10,000 years ago.
Hilary and the February's atmospheric river from Feb. 4-7 brought way more rain than Death Valley is used to seeing in one go — about 2.2 inches and 1.5 inches respectively, according to the NPS. For context, Death Valley usually gets about 2 inches of rain a year.
Death Valley is famously one of the harshest and driest locations on Earth, though thousands of years ago it was home to an ancient lake system. Lake Manly was last seen during the last ice age — geologists estimate it was 700 feet deep and covered much of what's now Death Valley National Park.
Since it's located in Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level the lake also has the distinction of being the lowest body of water in North America, at least for the time being.
Lake Manly joined a number of other temporary lakes in California due to last year's heavy rains, including the massive Lake Tulare in the Central Valley.
