Death Valley, CA

I'm going to take a little poetic license here.  We are actually in Las Vegas, having arrived right in the midst of traffic hour!  Not good planning on our part.  However, I really would like to talk more about our trip from Tonopah through Death Valley today, hence the subject of this post.

We left Tonopah this morning with the temperature at 33 degrees and the altitude at more than 6000 feet.  Three hours later, we were in Death Valley at an altitude just below sea level and the temperature at 75 degrees.  As I have mentioned below, it is amazing that the lowest point in the US (minus 262 feet) is less than two or three hours from Mt Whitney - the highest point in the continental United States.  As we crested the Tonopah summit just south of the town, there is an awesome view encompassing miles of Nevada desert with the Sierra Nevada in California to our west.  You can literally see a hundred miles (and I might add that there ain't a heck of a lot to be seen in all that expanse - except desert and mountains). 

Stopped in Beatty, NV for refueling (breakfast for us and gas for the Jeep).  Beatty is billed as the gateway to Death Valley and as the road to Scotty's Castle is now closed because of the October rainstorms, it is one of the few entrances from the East.  Those rainstorms were also the contributing factor in the Superbloom which is what brought us to Death Valley.  The flowers really lived up to their billing.  It's funny, because there are lots of places in the United States which have more beautiful and thicker displays of flowers (think of Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Washington and the tulip fields north of San Diego).  The real beauty of the flowers in Death Valley is because of the stark contrast to what is normally there.  Normally, Death Valley conjures up visions of rocks, desert and dry, parched land. 

This year because of the aforementioned rainstorms in October, the dormant seeds germinated and four months after the rain storm, are now blooming in vast perfusion across the area.  You probably have seen news reports of the Superbloom just because it is so unusual.  The last one was in 2005 and the one before that was in 1998.  Amazing how Mother Nature can come to life so quickly (and then just as quickly, fade away). 

We'll post some pictures on my One Drive so you all can get some idea of the floral display.  We had been through Death Valley just two short months ago when we went down to Laughlin.  Today there were two major differences - the flowers and the crowds of people.  It was difficult finding a parking spot at places of interest - judging from the license plates and languages being spoken, people were here from all over the nation and the world.

Tourists were not the only hindrance we encountered on the roads.  Caltrans decided that now was a good time to repair roads damaged by the storms.  At one of the traffic stops, there was a coyote standing by the side of the road, probably looking for a handout.  He didn't seem too fazed by the traffic, and after a little while, he ambled off across the desert - probably looking for a rabbit to dine on. 

We left Death Valley after taking a quick tour of the Visitor Center  and the site of the old Borax plant - more crowds and parking problems!  Traveling over to Pahrump, we saw more fields of golden flowers waving in the breeze.  Very impressive!

We'll keep you posted on our travels, although I fear the rest of our week will be much more mundane.

Take care.