Death Valley Wildflowers are currently blooming across the lower elevations of the National Park, creating the best bloom the park has seen since 2016, according to the National Park Service.
Right now, visitors can spot flowers like desert sunflowers, yellow cups, brittlebush, gravel ghosts, and desert five-spot scattered across the desert floor. Blooms are even appearing around Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level.
Park officials say it’s not officially a “superbloom” — at least not yet. Those rare events, when massive carpets of flowers blanket the valley, happened in 2016, 2005, and 1998 after particularly wet winters.
Still, this year’s display is impressive by Death Valley standards.
The park typically receives less than two inches of rain each year, but a series of winter storms brought enough moisture to trigger thousands of dormant seeds. Many desert wildflower seeds can lie buried in the soil for years or even decades, waiting for just the right conditions to sprout.
The current blooms at lower elevations are expected to last into mid- to late March, depending on temperatures and wind. As spring continues, the bloom will likely move into higher elevations, where flowers can continue appearing through April, May, and sometimes even June.
For now, one of North America’s harshest landscapes is showing a rare and colorful side — a reminder that even the driest desert can surprise you.
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