From the article:
On June 20, 1965, four high school buddies set out to a remote desert location about 90-miles northwest of Las Vegas. Their intent: to joy dive into a deep, geothermal abyss called Devils Hole. Sadly, two of the young men would never remerge from this mysterious "fossil water" portal.
Their publicized disappearance set into motion a series of revelations concerning deep time, interconnected hydrogeological sublimity, time-traveling Indigenous Shamans, distant seismic events, genetic conundrums, capitalistic greed and consequent environmental exploitation. At the center of this saga is a tiny endangered fish at the threshold of existence.
Without rain there can be no wildflowers, so we here at Deathvalley.com want to thank Ms. Schultz for sharing a photo she caught of a rare full double rainbow last October on highway 190 (full size below). We are fairly certain that this rainbow was part of the storm that caused so much havock and yet is directly responsible for this year's superbloom.
DEATH VALLEY, CA –Badwater Road is now fully open, connecting Death Valley National Park to the gateway town of Shoshone, California. Work remains to be done in other areas of the park to repair road and infrastructure damage caused by flash floods last October.
Several storms between October 4 and October 18, 2015 caused extreme flash flood damage. In one location, 2.7 inches of rain fell in just 5 hours –which exceeds Death Valley's average precipitation for a year.
Badwater Road is the main paved road in the southern end of Death Valley National Park. National Park Service road crews cleared large amounts of dirt and rock to open the northern section of Badwater Road by early November, providing access to popular destinations such as Badwater Basin, the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below sea level.
The section of Badwater Road near Jubilee Pass was extensively damaged, with about a half mile of pavement and road base washed away in multiple sections of the road. Federal Highway Administration funded the repair work.William Kanayan Construction started repairs in May, under a contract with Federal Highway Administration. Much of the work was done at night so that temperatures would be cooler.
Death Valley Natural History Association has reported one of the earliest blooms in recent memory in Death Valley National Park. Heavy early rains (and the flooding it has caused) seems to have put the delicate and ephemeral desert wildflowers on show as they take advantage of the record moisture.
Peak viewing generally occurs in late-February through mid-April, but wildflowers can be seen in the higher elevations of the even in early summer.
The best viewing occurs in the most accessible areas of Death Valley, some of the most memorable areas in the past easily viewed from the highways and roads that cross the national park.
The National Park service maintains a webpage with regular updates about wildflower activity in Death Valley, you can view it by clicking here.
More rainfall is anticipated in what's expected to be a highly active El Nino year. It's possible that we could even see a super bloom this year, an event which hasn't happened since 2005 and which carpeted the infamously dry valley in brilliant color.
The Death Valley Natural History Association sells wildflower books, brochures and more. Proceeds benefit Death Valley National Park.
