Lake Mead, once the largest water reservoir in the US, now little more than a graveyard

Abandoned boats and dried mud are largely all that remain of Lake Mead.  (AP: John Locher )

An abandoned old power boat juts upright from the cracked mud like a giant tombstone.

Its epitaph might read: Here lay the waters of Lake Mead.

The lake bed is now a graveyard.  (AP: John Locher)

The largest US reservoir has shrunken to a record low due to a punishing drought and the demands of 40 million people in seven states who are sucking the Colorado River dry.

The mega drought in the US West has been worsened by climate change.

The wildfire season has become longer and the blazes more intense, scorching temperatures have broken records and lakes are shrivelling.

The receding waters of Lake Mead National Recreation Area have revealed the skeletal remains of two people, along with countless desiccated fish and what has become a graveyard of forgotten and stranded watercraft.

Wildlife have been hit hard by the worsening drought.  (AP: John Locher)

The lake bed is littered with debris from better days.  (AP: John Locher)

Boats have been left to the elements.  (AP: John Locher)

Houseboats, sailboats and motorboats have been beached, creating a surreal scene in an otherwise rugged desert landscape.

A buoy that once marked a no-boat-zone sits in the dirt, not a drop of water anywhere in view.

Even a sunken World-War-II-era craft that once surveyed the lake has emerged from the ebbing waters. (AP: Las Vegas Review/LE Baskow)

Nature did not create this still-water paradise for fishing, camping and kayaking.

The mighty Colorado River that separates Nevada from Arizona once flowed beneath the walls of Black Canyon until the Hoover Dam was erected in 1935 for irrigation, flood control and hydropower.

40 million people once relied on what remains of this river for water.  (AP: John Locher)

The reservoir is now below 30 per cent of capacity. (AP: John Locher)

Its level has dropped 52 metres since reaching a high-water mark in 1983.

It leaves behind a bright white line of mineral deposits on the brown canyon walls that loom over passing motorboats as high as a 15-storey building.

Most of the boat ramps have been gated and marina docks moved into deeper waters.

A sign that marks the water level in 2002 inconceivably stands above a road that descends to boat slips in the distance. (AP: John Locher)

The dropping water levels have consequences not only for the cities that depend on the future source of water but for boaters who must navigate shallow waters and avoid islands and sandbars that lurk below the surface before emerging.

Craig Miller's houseboat fell victim to the falling water levels. (AP: John Locher)

Craig Miller was motoring around on his houseboat last month when the engine died and he floated to shore.

Within days, the knee-deep water where his boat came to rest was gone.

"It's amazing how fast the water went down," Mr Miller said.

He bought pumps and tried to dredge the sand around the boat to create a channel to the water but could not stay ahead of the receding waters.

A tow from shallow waters, originally estimated at $US4,000 ($5,945) ballooned to a $US20,000 salvage job when he became marooned.

Miller spent three weeks on the beached boat. (AP: John Locher)

The day before he was told by park rangers that he had to get the boat off the sand, Dave Sparks, a social media personality known as Heavy D, arrived to help. 

Mr Sparks had seen a video about Mr Miller's plight, and showed up with a crew to pull the boat from the shore and tow it to a marina.

Craig Miller watches as efforts to save his boat begin.  (AP: John Locher)

The men work to dig a channel through which Mr Miller's boat can be retrieved.  (AP: John Locher)

Soon the boat will be removed.  (AP: John Locher)

Others have flocked to the dried lake bed for selfies in the haunting landscape or against the backdrop of what looks like a colossal ring around a bathtub.

Visitors still flock to the dying lake.  (AP: John Locher)

A small school of dead fish have been propped on their tails and arranged in a circle.

The dried lake bottom looks like shattered glass, the cracks expanding in the hot sun and the mud fading from brown to beige.

The Sun has almost set on the remains of the once-great lake.  (AP: John Locher)

As the Sun sets to the west over Las Vegas, the light illuminates the translucent hollowed-out body and empty eye socket of one fish. Its mouth is open as if it is trying to breathe.

ABC/AP