Salt and dry lakes
Playas destinations in the USA
A playa is a lake that is usually a floor: salt, alkali, and a horizon with nothing on it.
Bonneville, the Alvord, and the Sun Tunnels sit on this list beside the desert chapter they already belong to. Black Rock Desert is the big Nevada flat. Racetrack Playa is the sailing-stone floor in Death Valley, on a rough high-clearance road. Salt Plains in Oklahoma grows selenite. Carrizo Plain holds Soda Lake on the San Andreas. Smoke Creek is the empty basin north of Pyramid Lake.
- Plates
- 8
- States
- 5
States in this chapter
- California
- Nevada
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Utah
Playas chapter
The plates
Plate CXLIIdesert42.5° N · 118.5° W
Alvord Desert
east of Steens Mountain, Oregon
A white floor under Oregon’s secret escarpment.
Open plate
Plate CLIIdesert40.8° N · 113.8° W
Bonneville Salt Flats
west of Wendover, Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah
A lake that dried into a sheet of light.
Open plate
Plate CCXXXIIIdesert41.3° N · 113.9° W
Sun Tunnels
Lucin, Utah
Four tunnels that keep the sun’s appointments.
Open plate
Plate CCCLXXXplaya40.9° N · 119.1° W
Black Rock Desert
Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails NCA, Nevada
A dry lake so flat the horizon looks drawn with a ruler.
Open plate
Plate CCCLXXXIplaya36.7° N · 117.6° W
Racetrack Playa
Death Valley National Park, California
Stones that sail, and the mud that writes it down.
Open plate
Plate CCCLXXXIIplaya36.8° N · 98.2° W
Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge
Alfalfa County, Oklahoma
A white plain that grows hourglass crystals.
Open plate
Plate CCCLXXXIIIplaya35.2° N · 119.8° W
Carrizo Plain National Monument
Soda Lake and the San Andreas Fault, California
A dry lake on the San Andreas, and a plain that flowers when the rain is right.
Open plate
Plate CCCLXXXIVplaya40.5° N · 119.7° W
Smoke Creek Desert
north of Pyramid Lake, Nevada
A blank playa between ranges, with almost no one on it.
Open plate
Asked at the trailhead
Questions already asked
- What is a playa?
- A dry lake bed. This index lists salt flats and alkali playas, including Bonneville, the Black Rock Desert, Racetrack Playa, and the Salt Plains of Oklahoma.
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