Death Valley Bloom

We were at a birthday party last night, our first night in Nevada, and heard about the bloom. Some of Kevin’s friends were taking a trip the next day to Death Valley to see flowers, of all things! It’s true, when the desert blooms, you had better go see it. This year’s bloom is being called a superbloom, the best of the decade. Kevin’s brother and sister-in-law are still with us, so we decided to be tourists and head to Death Valley today. 

Death Valley is about 2 ½ hours from Boulder City. I am glad to finally be visiting some national parks and getting some value from my Senior Pass. I was surprised to learn that the Death Valley National Recreation Area is the largest national park in the U.S. There was a nice Visitor’s Center with a great historical gallery. I got lost in the displays there and kept the others waiting and wondering where I was. I got a T-shirt and a hiking medallion. I was a good tourist.

The only “hiking” we did (but don’t tell anyone) was to walk around the remains of the borax processing area. In the 1800’s a businessman tried to refine borax from the floor of the lake. The business didn’t last long. Death Valley was a hard place to work. But we still have 20 Mule Team Borax on the shelf in stores and that’s where it started. 

We started looking for flowers right away but there was a lot of dessert that wasn’t blooming yet. We might have found more blooms if we had gotten out and hiked off road, but that wasn’t the plan. Several times we got out of the truck and took pictures of every flower we could find. One called Desert Gold is the most prevalent right now. 

We traveled out of Death Valley and had a late lunch in Parumph. The Dry Creek Saloon gave us a bit of local color and taste. Our chef was very attentive to our requests and I considered him worthy of a photo. So were his smashburgers.  Back in Boulder City we took a walk along the main street and stopped in at Mr. T’s for refreshing drinks. I’m enjoying everything southwest.