Death Valley in California – the hottest place on Earth and the driest place in North America – is currently carpeted in wildflowers in what is shaping up to be the best bloom in a decade.
The National Park Service (NPS) officially categorised this as an above-average bloom year on 22 February, with low-elevation flowers blooming throughout the park.
It is the best event the site has seen since 2016, with swathes of the desert transformed and covered in golden and violet flora.
The trigger was an unusually wet autumn. Record rainfall of 2.41in (6.1cm) hit Death Valley in the autumn of 2025, soaking seeds and washing off their protective coatings to trigger sprouting, followed by a dramatically wetter winter that provided the steady moisture needed for root development.
