We just returned from another visit to Death Valley National Park. Wildflowers are blooming in California’s deserts and the show is far from over. It has been an odd weather year in California, but desert areas received abundant well-timed rainfall that is producing an above average (and perhaps earlier than usual?) wildflower bloom. We saw the potential back in December and scheduled our return to the park accordingly. We were not disappointed.
Is this one of the proverbial “super bloom” years? Few are using that term at the present moment, but it is clearly an above average year. Some areas, like this gravel fan below desert hills, are covered with fields of desert gold flowers. Small flowers are underfoot everywhere. Other locations are green with sprouting plants that will continue to produce new blooms over coming weeks.
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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
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Lovely image! I know that spot, and I am still here, but the heat seems to have begun to cook the flowers a bit. Several days of high 80’s and into 90s, I’m wilting too! They still look good for landscapes like this, though. Wish I knew you were here! It would have been fun to meet up in the blooms…
Thanks, Brenda. Patty and I were down there to look for sand verbena at the Ashford Mill site, and we decided to head up the road a bit (after a little detour down Harry Wade Road), and that particular spot was really in bloom! We did a bit more exploring and came back during the last hour of the day, which is when I made that photo.
Patty is the wildflower photography nut in our household — she usually has a macro lens on her cameras. She also turned me on to the amazing number of tiny flowers underfoot that I had mostly ignored in the pst.
The weather was great while we were there, with highs barely hitting 70, but it was warming up on our last day when we departed. I wondered where we were in the flower transition. I was thinking there might be more flowers to come on the valley floor and in low elevation canyons and washes, as there were still a lot of green plants that had not bloomed. Of course, if you continue to go to higher elevations there will be flowers — I’ve gotten some beautiful once in the Panamints in early April… which is a bout as late in year as I want to be in that park!
Sorry we missed you! It would have been fun to meet up. We usually don’t announce our travels in advance, but I’ll have to let a few folks know in the future.
Hope you got some good stuff!
Dan