After a winter of record rainfall, a superbloom has erupted in Death Valley, covering the famous arid desert in a blanket of vibrant pink, purple and yellow flowers. As travelers from around the world head to the desert, they can expect to be greeted by fragrant air and a quilt of delicate hues.
While there is no official definition of superbloom, the National Park Service uses the term to “describe conditions in which so many flowers are present that they appear as stripes of color across the landscape, rather than as isolated plants, especially conspicuous at low elevations where the soil is typically sand, gravel, and rock.”
The park last experienced a super bloom in 2016, which can only occur in “perfect conditions,” with “well-spaced rains” and mild temperatures.
The National Park Service said low-elevation flowers would continue to bloom until mid- to late March, depending on the weather. Higher elevations will experience blooms from April to June.
Time is of the essence to catch a glimpse of the super bloom, so if tourists can arrive in time, they should keep an eye out for some of the more common (and showy) flowers: desert gold, brown-eyed primrose, golden primrose, phacelia, Mojave poppy, to name a few.
