How deep is the hole in Devils Hole?

Devils Hole itself is a water-filled cavern cut into the side of a hill. The cavern is over 500 feet (152 m) deep and the bottom has never been mapped. Devils Hole provides its resident pupfish with conditions of constant temperature (92°F, 33°C) and salinity, unlike the fluctuating environments of many other pupfish.



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The Devils Hole pupfish have been isolated 10,000 to 20,000 years, longer than any other in the Death Valley system. Devils Hole itself is a water-filled cavern cut into the side of a hill. The cavern is over 500 feet (152 m) deep and the bottom has never been mapped.

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Located in southern Nevada, the “hole” itself is a fissure in the earth's surface that split open 60,000 years ago to reveal an astonishing underworld: a water-filled limestone cavern. Ironically, beneath the hottest, driest place in the Western Hemisphere stretches a vast aquifer system.

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Devil's Hole was a moniker the area earned for its difficult terrain making it tough to navigate. The battle in 1763 only reinforced the nickname among locals, and it stuck.

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Start at the gorge overlook at Devil's Hole, and head down the stone stairway. There are an estimated 410 steps heading down.

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On March 20, 2012, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico, some 2,000 miles (3,200 km) away and centered roughly 12 miles (19 km) below the surface, caused an undulating 4 feet (1.2 m) rise and fall of the cavern waters, as appreciated by researchers working at Devil's Hole at the time.

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The salt pan of Death Valley is the dried-up bed of Lake Manly, a 600' deep lake that existed about 150,000 years ago.

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