A nature photographer kneels down with his tripod to capture the early morning light reflecting in the Badwater Basin, the lowest elevation in the United States, 282 ft. (86m) below sea level, with the Panamit Range in the background at Death Valley National Park, Calif.

A rare burst of colour is softening the stark landscape of Death Valley, with clusters of purple, pink and white wildflowers dotting the black basalt mountainsides and great swaths of golden blooms bordering the blinding white salt flats on the valley floor.

The winter storms that brought mudslides and death to Southern California dropped 15 centimetres of rain on this thirsty desert -- three times more than usual -- encouraging wildflower seeds to sprout.

Experts say this kind of show comes once in a lifetime.

The flowers have adapted to the desert by developing seeds with coatings so thick or waxy that they can hibernate for decades. Only continued heavy rains will coax them to grow.

Then, when there's just the right amount of moisture, sunlight and warmth, "it's all systems go," says Pam Muick, executive director of the California Native Plant Society.

She says Death Valley hasn't seen such a wide array of flowers in about 50 years -- blue pendants of desert lupine and tiny purple chias growing in clumps, golden California poppies scattering all over hillsides.

Along roads leading into the park, long rows of bright yellow daisies wave, almost as if they'd been seeded to greet the visitors.

The normally forbidding landscape is not only alive with flowers, but fat, eight-centimetre-long green caterpillars that develop into Sphinx moths will come out soon to feast on the blooms, said Terry Baldino, a park ranger.

"They're the biggest, ugliest things you've ever seen," Baldino said. "And they have one thing on their mind -- eating flowers."


A visitor photographs a mountain's reflection in the Badwater Basin. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The caterpillars and the abundance of new seeds will attract birds and small rodents, drawing in snakes and foxes in turn -- a food chain that is very unusual for Death Valley, Baldino said.

Even in the early spring, temperatures are already soaring into the 90s, reminding tourists flocking in for the flower show that this is a place of extremes.

A deep bowl about 256 kilometres long, the valley was created when great plates of earth pushed apart, giving rise to the Amargosa and the Panamint mountain ranges and dropping the valley floor 89 metres below sea level.

The depression works like a convection oven, recirculating hot air and making the valley one of the hottest places on earth, with ground-level temperatures that can reach 200 degrees in summer.

It's also extremely dry, with less than five centimetres of rainfall a year. The water that does wash down the mineral-rich mountainsides carries salt deposits that have formed the great salt flats dominating the valley floor.


Wild flowers bloom as a car travels through Death Valley National Park. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Visitors can hike or drive for miles along the glistening salt pan, or examine the jagged salt formations that seem to mirror the snowcapped mountains looming in the background.

The recent storms have turned part of the salt pan around Badwater Basin -- normally a brackish puddle a few centimetres deep -- into a reflecting pool about eight kilometres across.

Kayakers and windsailers cut across the shallow, lifeless water. Other visitors wade in, only to emerge covered in a salt crust.

The flowers will continue to flourish until July, according to Baldino. The blooms in the southern reaches and lower elevations will fade within the next couple of weeks as temperatures climb, but the warmth will trigger seed banks farther north and higher up in the hillsides, creating a moving display.

These flowers will then drop seeds, which will lay dormant until the next really wet winter.


Wild flowers bloom on the edge of the Badwater Basin. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

"This isn't a wasteland," Muick said. "It will start looking empty when the flowers are gone, but there's life there at all times."

If You Go...

Death Valley National Park: www.nps.gov/deva/ or (760) 786-3200.

Accommodations: Motels in the park: Furnace Creek Inn and Furnace Creek Ranch, at (760) 786-2345 (nightly rates begin at $250 US for the inn and $108 for the ranch); Stovepipe Wells Motel, at (760) 786-2387 (nightly rates begin at $83); and Panamint Springs Resort, at (775) 482-7680 (nightly rates begin at $65). Nine campgrounds are available, first come, first served. The Furnace Creek campground accepts reservations via (800) 365-CAMP or www.nps.gov.

Best times and places for viewing wildflowers:


Tourists walk down to the edge of the Badwater Basin. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Until mid-April, look at lower elevations, such as the valley floor and alluvial fans. Best areas: in Jubilee Pass, Highway 190 near the Furnace Creek Inn, and the base of Daylight Pass. Dominant species: desert star, blazing star, desert gold, mimulus, encelia, poppies, verbena, evening primrose, phacelia, and various species of cacti.

Between April and May, look at higher elevations, between 600 to 1,200 metres. Best area: in the Panamint mountains. Dominant species: paintbrush, Mojave desert rue, lupine, Joshua tree, bear poppy, cacti and Panamint daisies.

Between late April, June and July, look for flowers only at the highest parts of the mountains, above 1,200 metres. Best area: High Panamint mountains. Dominant species: Mojave wildrose, rabbitbrush, Panamint daisies, mariposa lilies and lupine.


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