Reflections on Lake Manly: Full Moon Over Death Valley

View fullsize

Lake Manly Death Valley

Capturing the Rare Ephemeral Waters Beneath Telescope Peak

Death Valley got way more than its normal amount of rain in late 2023 and early 2024. All that heavy runoff pooled right at the lowest point in the valley, Badwater Basin, bringing back a fleeting body of water locals affectionately called Lake Manly. It was not a deep lake—just inches in most spots—but it was enough to completely transform the salt flats and even let people paddleboard or kayak across a desert basin. I made sure to be there for photography in February of '24 to catch this strange, wet landscape.

I usually try to time my winter trips to Death Valley around a full moon because it opens up the door for including the moon as a compositional element as well as clean reflection shots like this one. I was up very early that morning before any warm, colorful light started showing in the western sky. My main goal was to grab the shot before the heavy moon finally dipped down behind Telescope Peak and the snow-capped Panamint Range. Working in the pre-dawn chill, I set my focal length to 26 mm, dialed the aperture to f/4.5 at ISO 200, and locked in a shutter speed of 1/20th of a second to catch the crisp details on the mountain ridge and its mirror image in the brine. There was some ripple action in the water, resulting in a less than pristine reflection, but using a long exposure to flatten it out would make the movement of the moon go bonkers into an ugly smear of bright light. So, I took what was given and am still happy with the result.

It is always wild to think about the history locked into this geography. Lake Manly is named after William Lewis Manly, a 1949 gold rush pioneer who helped guide families out of the brutal valley. In prehistoric times, the original Pleistocene Lake Manly was nearly 90 miles long and hundreds of feet deep, a massive Ice Age relic that slowly evaporated over thousands of years into the salt flats we see today. Seeing a modern, temporary version of it form under the moonlight feels like stepping back into a forgotten chapter of the American West.

---

Explore More of My Adventures