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The Spring Wildflowers of Death Valley National Park
Elizabeth Weintraub in Shoshone
Whenever a person leaves a National Park such as Death Valley, we tend to take away a little bit of the park with ourselves — and I don’t mean by stuffing one’s pockets with rocks after disturbing protected areas. People are always swiping things, doing stupid stuff, rationalizing to themselves that it’s OK because they are only one person, but it multiplies and, after a while, all of that stupidity adds up to less for anybody else to enjoy. People, as a collective group like the general public, can be disgusting. Like the tourists who steal the moving rocks at The Racetrack, probably because there aren’t any wildflowers to stomp on and destroy.
The stuff we take away from our visits to National Parks like Death Valley is the memories, and our internal connection to the earth in all of its richness, textures and colors remains. Unlike other mountain ranges where moisture is abundant, where trees, wildflowers, vegetation cover the landscape, the mountain ranges in Death Valley lie exposed, uncovered, showing us geological layers, which we wouldn’t ordinarily be able to view under any other circumstances apart from maybe a road cut by a road construction crew.
Pool at Furnace Creek Inn
Between the Panamint Mountains and Black Mountains is the Furnace Creek Inn Resort, and across the road is the Ranch for campers / RVs. The reviews I read before we went made it sound very rustic, but the Furnace Creek Inn is lovely and romantic. The dining is first rate, too. Where else can one sip a pink prickly pear margarita after swimming in a spring-fed pool? Well, there was that one young woman who dove under the water and came up with a long string of snot glued under her nose. After she dipped her head into the pool and emerged a second time, I thought for certain the snot would have vanished, but no, there it was, globby, gooky and icky looking.
I thought about pointing it out to her but then it occurred to me that maybe it was a defect of sorts, perhaps attached to her body, like those bulging veins in a Klingon’s forehead, and to say something would be like calling undo attention to a disabled person’s permanent affliction. If that wasn’t the case, then how else could I politely let her know because she was obviously oblivious. Would I say: “Pardon me, but perhaps you’ve snorted too much coke.” Fortunately, after she dove under the water a third time, the glob had vanished.
I got out of the pool.
That’s one of the drawbacks to being in such a hot and dry climate like Death Valley. Your nose does all sorts of strange things. Below are spring wildflowers of Death Valley in bloom, which I hope will help encourage you to visit this magnificent place.
Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub and Adam Weintraub
Gravel Ghost by Elizabeth Weintraub
Tobacco Weed Wildflower in Death Valley
Desert Dandelion Wildflower in Death Valley
Newly emerging wildflowers in Death Valley
Daisy wildflower in Death Valley
Magenta Pear Cactus flower
Photos of Golden Canyon, Uebehe Crater and The Racetrack
The Racetrack in Death Valley National Park
It seems that foreign tourists know more about America’s national parks than Americans because almost every national park has more tourists from another country than people from here. This seems to hold true and account for the few Californians who visit Death Valley National Park. The guide who drove us to The Racetrack in his old Toyota without air conditioning gave us the low down about foreign visitors. He claims foreign tourists usually start in Las Vegas, do the loop to the Grand Canyon, then Death Valley and on up to Yosemite, stopping in Los Angeles and topping off the vacation in San Francisco.
Sacramento is not on the list for that loop. People also look at me funny when I try to explain it gets almost as hot in Death Valley as it does in Sacramento. I mean, come on, people, our temperatures have hovered at 115 for weeks at a time during the summer in Sacramento. OK, it’s not death-defining heat like 128 but hot is HOT.
Coming to Death Valley has made me wish that I had paid more attention in school to geology. This natural wonder formed by seismic forces separating and thrusting the Black Mountains apart from the Panamint Mountains, creating a valley floor. Nearby to Furnace Creek, we have the Golden Canyon, which used to have a road running through it until it got washed out; then further up past Stovepipe Wells, huge mounds of sand dunes.
Even further, in another part of Death Valley National Park, past the Joshua trees and wildflowers at 5,000 feet in elevation is The Racetrack. Until recently, nobody knew what moved the giant rocks during the night, only that they moved, leaving long trails behind them. The working theory now is ice crystals form under the rocks, which reduce the friction on the surface, so when the wind blows, they glide across the dry lake bed.
Check out my video of The Racetrack
Below are photos by Elizabeth Weintraub of these Death Valley attractions, which I hope you will enjoy enough to visit in person yourself.
The Racetrack Grandstand at Death Valley National Park
Layers thrust upward in Golden Canyon, Death Valley
Uebehe crator at Death Valley National Park
Triple peaks in Golden Canyon, Death Valley
Angel fish rock in Golden Canyon, Death Valley
