In the last few days we have had almost an entire year's worth of rain. Death Valley averages less than two inches of rain a year, and in three days we have received a grand total of 1.55 inches. And, there might be more to come this week. Hopefully, all this rain will bring nice wildflowers in the Spring. The park naturalist has just updated the wildflower report at http://www.nps.gov/deva/naturescience/upload/Wildflower%20Update.pdf.
Monday
The forecast last weekend predicted a series of storms to hit Death Valley over a ten day period. It all began on Monday...
Late Monday afternoon we drove down the Badwater Road to see what we would find.
A few good streams were flowing.
The rain brings out the colors of the mountains.
The rain in the valley stopped just before sunset, but beautiful storm clouds remained around the mountains.
Great sunset colors above the Black Mountains.
Sitting above the Inn, looking across the valley at the Panamint Mountains.Tuesday
Tuesday, we drove to Lone Pine to enjoy some cooler weather and fresh snow on the Sierra's. We spent the night in a cozy little cabin at Boulder Creek RV Resort and woke up early Wednesday morning to photograph the sunrise in the Alabama Hills. The little bit of snow on the AL Hills was a nice touch. A spectacular morning led right into a full day of adventures....
Back on Hwy. 190...
This is the first time we have ever seen snow on highway 190 entering the park from the west side. Also, the first time seeing snow on and around the park entrance sign. Very cool!
Before we got home we decided to take another detour to see the charcoal kilns in the snow.
This is the Emigrant Pass road that leads to the charcoal kilns. We dropped back below 3,000 ft. to turn onto this road. All this rubble is left over from Monday's rain.
By Emigrant Pass, we were back in the snow.
There were no other tracks on the road.
There must have been six to eight inches of snow on the road as we neared the charcoal kilns at the Wildrose Peak trailhead...and the Rav4 did excellent!
Charcoal kilns covered in fresh snow.
Andrew needed a closer look, taste, and smell---even after we wrestled and I rubbed it in his face (ha ha ha!), not that he was trying to do that to me first or anything. Wednesday
As Andrew and I were playing in the snow in the mountains, it had been raining all day in the valley. It started about noon we were told. We got home about six that evening and around 8:30 we lost power.
Thursday
It rained all day again until sometime late in the evening. Our power returned about 2:30 pm. Andrew and I got off work about 3:30 and went out to play in the rain.
This is the road in front of the Inn that leads to Badwater. This is one of the first roads that gets closed when there is a decent amount of rain coming down. The road parallels the Black Mountains cutting across alluvial fans, so any water washing down the mountains covers the road with sediment.
Since the Inn sits on an alluvial fan, the lower parking lot sits in a wash. So, when the water runs down the wash, it goes through the parking lot (all cars are evacuated when it starts raining), across Hwy. 190 and the Badwater road, then into the valley.
~After checking out the Inn parking lot, we decided to drive north on Hwy. 190 to see what was happening.
Water flowing everywhere! :)This is a pretty rare and special site in this part of the world.
~
After driving north we decided to come back and check on the Inn parking lot one more time before it got real dark.
After driving north we decided to come back and check on the Inn parking lot one more time before it got real dark.
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