In Search of Wildflowers

 

One of the Death Valley park rangers suggested a hike through Fall Canyon, and since we hadn’t been there before we took a drive north to the Titus Canyon trailhead off Scotty’s Castle Road, which is where the Fall Canyon trail also begins. Besides just being a good hike, he said there should be a lot of flowers blooming in the canyon.

I mentioned that the park was crowded, but really what I meant was around the Furnace Creek area, where there are several campgrounds, the visitor center, the ranch, and the inn. Despite there being quite a few cars at the trailhead parking area, most people must have been walking through Titus Canyon because we didn’t see that many people on the hike.

The first half mile is along the base of the mountains, where we saw plenty of flowers.

Golden evening primrose.

Desert five spot.

Then we dropped down a very steep, short hill to the mouth of Fall Canyon.

In addition to finding flowers, we were surprised to see so much vegetation growing on the ground and canyon walls. The canyon floor is nothing but rocks and gravel.

It makes us feel so small and insignificant walking through high-walled canyons like this.

I expected there would be more cactus, but this was the only one we found.

Some of the natural coloring on the walls looked like strange rock art.

After 3.5 miles and right around this next bend was the end of the trail for us, and the 35’ dry fall for which the canyon gets its name.

There is no way to climb up, but I read that about 300’ back from the fall is a place where you can get up and around it, and the canyon is accessible for another three miles. Not that we wanted to continue on, but we weren’t able to find any way up and around.

While we were stopped there eating lunch, two young women came by, and I saw them taking pictures of something on the ground. When they passed us again they said it was a butterfly that was alive but moving very slowly. We went back to look for it and it hadn’t moved.  It was quite cool as no sun was reaching that part of the canyon, so after Jim took a photo he scooped it up in his hand and carried it back with us. We weren’t quite back in the sun yet but after a few minutes it flew off.

In another mile or so we saw a couple who told us they had been watching a chuckwalla just up ahead. They showed us photos they had taken, but when we got to the same area it was gone. Shortly after another couple was walking toward us, and Jim told him to be on the lookout for the chuckwalla. Interestingly the guy was wearing a butterfly t-shirt, so Jim told them about our butterfly and showed him the photo. He said he was hoping to see one of those in the canyon, and identified it as a sagebrush checker spot, and a female no less. Had we not spoken with them about the lizard we never would have learned about the butterfly. A funny coincidence.

On our way home we took a little detour around Starlight Pass and Beatty Cutoff roads, where the ranger said the wildflowers were at their peak. By then it was cloudy and the photos don’t really show the vast sea of yellow that covered the entire desert floor.

It’s hard to believe anything can grow in soil like this, but the conditions were right this year with El Nino rains, so the desert is full of colors other than earth tones. I’m glad we got to see it as it won’t last much longer, and could be another 10 years before it happens again.