18th Feb 2005 – Death Valley in Bloom

This was the most amazing day for a number of reasons. The amount of rain! The once in a century sight of Death Valley painted green and yellow with Desert Marigolds and getting stopped by a State Trooper on the way home.

The day started as it pretty well meant to go on! Rain, rain and more rain. It absolutely chucked it down all the way from Las Vegas to Pahrump and the junction there towards Shoshone. The thing that struck us how green it all was compared to the previous two trips in 1995 and 2000!. It did ease for a while and we stopped once to take photos of the flowers before starting to chuck it down as we approached Shoshone and the diner where we had decided we would breakfast again. What a change from the last time in 2000! That time is was sunny and warm and we walked round the caves behind the main street that were littered with tin cans left over a hundred years ago by prospectors who had dug them out and lived in them.

The sight of Death Valley in bloom was awesome. We probably should have guessed after several stops on the way from Shoshone to Badwater before we got to Death Valley proper to photograph flowers and green plants. But this view was simply breathtaking and definitely qualifies as the once-in-a-lifetime experience. A rare privilege indeed!

Ashford Mill Panorama This panorama was taken at Ashford Mill which is just into Death Valley proper after the junction where you join Badwater Road and head north. You can find it by entering ‘Ashford Mill Death Valley’ into Google Maps. The small figure on the left is Lynne reading the plaque in front of the ruins of all that is left of the mill.

2005 – Flagstaff

I guess we call this trip the Flagstaff trip as we stayed eight nights in a self-catering ‘Comfy Cottage’ that we rented near the centre of Flagstaff, Arizona. However we had other memorable days during this trip, not least our day out to Death Valley from Las Vegas at the end of the holiday.