We had been hearing about the wildflower “superbloom” at Death Valley for a couple of weeks, so we decided to drive out for the weekend and see it for ourselves. The closest hotel room/camp site we could find was in Ridgecrest, some two hours southwest of the main park facilities at Furnace Creek, so we figured to have a lot of driving ahead of us (more than 14 hours in the car over the course of the weekend, as it turned out). We got into Death Valley proper about 10am, coming in through the west entrance via Stovepipe Wells and encountering the flowers not long thereafter. In all honesty, the bloom at the lower elevations (of course, it’s all really low-elevation, being at or below sea level on the valley floor) was less impressive than advertised – still, it was quite beautiful. High clouds made for dramatic skies, and the various reds, browns, and grays of the surrounding mountains contrasted nicely with the predominantly gold floral displays. We had wanted to hike in some of the mountain canyons but decided to first visit the south valley near Badwater and make our way northward before driving back to Ridgecrest for the night. A beautiful day with highs in the low 80s.