When a year comes that gets everything right, Death Valley wildflower blooms won't last long. Most of the showy desert wildflowers are in a hurry to sprout, grow and go to seed before the heat and dryness returns and their blooms are fleeting. Death Valley wildflower blooms start in the lower elevations - usually - mid-February through mid-April. Wildflowers may still be blooming in Death Valley's highest elevations (over 5,000 feet) into July.
In 2005, Death Valley experienced the perfect, once-in-a-century conditions that led to a wildflower season so spectacular that it made the news all over the country. Not every year will see wildflowers that abundant, but you'll find some nice blooms almost every year.
You'll find wildflower updates linked from the Death Valley website, usually starting in late winter and issued once a week at its most frequent.
Going to Death Valley for the Wildflowers
From our experience in 2010, we'll warn in advance that Mother Nature is fickle at best and trying to be in Death Valley at the peak of the wildflower bloom can be as elusive as trying to time the stock market.Hotel capacity is limited, so based on early information and general peak bloom dates, we reserved a room at the Furnace Creek Inn a couple of months in advance. With the last date to cancel our reservation coming up, we consulted the website's latest report and concluded that we would be too early for the wildflowers, by about two weeks. We canceled the reservation and as we expected, found a date two weeks later sold out. Ironically, the weather grew unexpectedly warm and the peak bloom happened during the period of our canceled reservation. We won't talk about the photographer's temper tantrum...
If you go during the general bloom time, you're likely to see something - and are more likely to retain your sanity (and composure) in the process.
The photo above was taken at Jubilee Pass during the 2005 Death Valley wildlflower bloom season.
