Interpretive sign at Badwater Basin: flinging salt on a geopolitical wound.

Even in some of the most remote and austere nooks of the nation, it’s possible to find overt demonstrations on hot-button global issues.  And why not?  All it takes is one person with a megaphone, a can of spray paint, or whatever the instrument of choice may be to impart an inflammatory message.  Nonetheless, I was a bit amused when I came across an interpretive sign at Death Valley National Park earlier this season.  It isn’t so much that Death Valley feels remote—it both is and isn’t.  Though the landmark comprises some of the most sparsely populated square mileage in California, it receives so many fascinated tourists on a day-to-day basis that any visitor seeking solitude will require extra effort.  So it is certainly austere, as manifested by the above photo.  But it’s a place of paradoxes: remote and austere, yet simultaneously beloved and familiar, because, although famous for its vastness and temperature fluctuations, the locale in the above photo enjoys added remoteness for capturing how deep within the earth the valley plunges: specifically, at the salt flats of Badwater Basin, the lowest point in all of Death Valley.

Even at Badwater Basin’s visitor entry point—a parking area with a typically rustic NPS restroom and interpretive signage—the adjacent cliff, opposite the trunk road, offers perhaps the most harrowing testimony:

Look hard at about one-third of the way down on this photo to the left: a faint gray sign says “SEA LEVEL”. This is indeed the lowest point in all of North America: 282 feet below sea level, and visitors at Badwater Basin must crane their necks to sea this tiny sign perched on the cliff wall.  Not everyone notices immediately.  But enough people do so that, by pointing and smiling, the rest of the visitors pick up on the subtle cue.

It’s a remarkable testament to how geographically distinct this site is: many people will go their entire lives without ever experiencing anything more than a few feet below sea level, if even that.  Those of us who lived in New Orleans can certainly claim a day-to-day living below sea level, but it’s hardly Badwater Basin: at the lowest points, the Crescent City is a mere six to ten feet below.  Much of the water in southeast Louisiana is either fresh (Mississippi River) or an estuary with brackish incursions (Lake Pontchartrain).  Conversely, Badwater is an endorheic basin: that is, it lacks drainage capacity, resulting in the highly saline “bad water” that gold prospectors’ mules refused to drink.

Typically, points on the earth’s surface this low are cooler and/or wetter (like muggy Louisiana), resulting in lake formation.  But the ground conditions are so anhydrous in Death Valley that the above photo is about the only dampness the eye can see.

Meanwhile, Badwater Basin’s depth, much lower than Louisiana, pales in comparison to the absolute lowest point, thousands of miles from Death Valley.  But the world’s farthest point below zero doesn’t feature a demonstrative sign along a cliff wall to convey to visitors just how far down they’ve plunged.  Here’s what the lowest of the low looks like:

Nothing like this in Death Valley.  The photos above, looking out onto the absolute lowest land-based elevation on earth, aren’t dominated by a national park; it’s split among more than one nation.  The interpretive signage and educational content is sparse.  Instead, the area is replete with hotels, spas, and resorts.  But more on that strange vacationland later.

Regardless of which site gets “lowest point” bragging rights, Death Valley National Park is virtually completely uncommercialized.  It contains a few rudimentary lodgings with swimming, dining, and a gift shop, primarily catering to people who want to overnight in a vast park that takes days to experience it all.  And a few that are a bit more plush.  But most of Death Valley’s 1,000,000+ visitors don’t come for any mineral spas; the Southwest has many comfier places for all that.  It’s a geology lesson and an exploration in climatological extremes, since the Furnace Creek Weather Station still reports (albeit somewhat apocryphally) the world’s highest air temperature ever captured: 134°F (56.7°C) back in 1913.

Amidst all the great information on warm air trapped in the valley, I didn’t catch anyone smiling or pointing fingers at the National Park Service interpretive sign at Badwater Basin, just a few feet away from where I snapped the pic of that “SEA LEVEL” marker.

These interpretive signs are everywhere at NPS installations; their prevalence, the quality of the research/illustrations, and the maintenance and care have helped the federal agency sustain its high reputation.  Death Valley National Park—the largest park in the lower 48 states—is no exception.  However, as I noted at the opening of this article, one of the most important signs reveals a little bit of grassroots activism:

Here, amidst this display of Badwater Basin’s brotherhood—other contenders for the lowest point on earth—is a modification to the map, barely visible from this distance, but it should be obvious when I zoom in.

Yes, someone helped contribute to the redaction of one of the nations that recognize the Dead Sea within its boundaries.  Depending on which international agency a person references, either two or three nations claim portions of the Dead Sea, the absolute lowest land-based elevation on earth.  And while Dead Sea offers undeniable geologic interest an even more extreme endorheic basin, its primary draw is less exploratory and more recreational, especially the Jordan side, where these and my other beachfront hotel images derive.

Returning to Death Valley and Badwater Basin, the elevation listed on this NPS sign is correct; the number of countries associated with it is not.  Israel and Palestine (West Bank) are both missing.  Even if an individual does not accept the one of these two nations’ claims to sovereignty, it is simply untrue as depicted (with the redaction) that the Dead Sea resides exclusively in Jordan.  And one does not need good eyesight to conclude that some other visitor to Badwater Basin attempted to remove “Israel” from the map completely.  It could have been one dedicated censor or the cumulative effort of many people.  I have no way of determining if this redaction reflects current geopolitical tensions, precipitated by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and the ensuing Israeli retaliation in Gaza, or if someone with a grievance against Israel scratched the country out of this interpretive sign long before 2023.  Regardless, I suspect the animus in 2026 remains so great that the NPS could replace this sign weekly and someone would etch out “Israel” time and again.

But I don’t think this is a recent redaction.  My guess is this interpretive sign is pretty old.  Why do I think this?  The full map at Badwater Basin indicates that the lowest point in South America is Salinas Chicas at the Valdés Peninsulain Argentina, which, while quite low at 131 feet, still places Badwater Basin 150’ lower.  More recent geotechnical surveying, however, has revealed that Laguna del Carbón in the Gran Bajo de San Julián is the absolute lowest point, not just in Argentina, but in all the Americas; it’s 344 feet below sea level, about 60’ lower than Badwater Basin.  For most of the 20th century, topographic measurements attested to Death Valley being the lowest point in all of the Americas, with Valdés containing the lowest in South America.  Only did improved studies—and greater curiosity—in the late 1980s and early 1990s did research confirm that Laguna del Carbón is, in fact, the lowest of them all.

In other words, the interpretive sign isn’t just geographically inaccurate in the Middle East with its etched-out “Israel”.  It’s geologically inaccurate in South America and has been for decades.  Granted, Laguna del Carbón is to this day an obscure attraction, lacking allure to the millions who explore the Patagonia region each year.  The land is privately owned, and people seeking to visit must ask permission, which probably slowed geological surveying.  But it’s there, and it’s lower than anything else in the Americas, making the Badwater Basin interpretive sign inaccurate once again, but this time through the NPS’s hand.

Regardless, both Badwater Basin blunders suggest that NPS is long overdue in updating this map.  Of course, a fresh new version will probably incite another activist to scratch away at a nation that he/she doesn’t like.  Perhaps, to save money, all the Department of Interior needs is a committed staffer with a good Sharpie pen?