National Park Service (NPS) staff were busy assisting hikers in two separate incidents on Sunday, February 5 at Death Valley National Park. Park rangers carried a woman with a broken leg out of Mosaic Canyon and located a man who had separated from his group on Wildrose Peak Trail.
Though it has been a wet and wild winter along the Sierra, and though last summer's monsoonal season dumped quite a bit of water on Death Valley National Park, park officials are not expecting a "super bloom" of wildflowers this spring.
As hot, arid, and dusty as Death Valley National Park is, it might come as a surprise to learn that it has a very important fishery of sorts. There is a place in the national park where there is a warm spring that is home to a rare and endangered fish - the Devils Hole Pupfish.
One of the most endangered fish species on the planet, one that calls a tiny water-filled canyon home, has undergone a population boom. National Park Service biologists recently surveyed the Devils Hole pupfish colony at Death Valley National Park, and counted 263 individuals, the greatest number recorded in 19 years.
Death Valley National Park is still recovering from flash floods in August and September. While the National Park Service (NPS) opened parts of Badwater Road and Wildrose late afternoon on September 21, many roads are still closed, leaving no road connecting the eastern and western parts of the park.
Tectonic shuddering triggered by Mexico's earthquake this week traveled 1,500 miles in less than 30 minutes to send 4-foot-tall waves through Devils Hole, a limestone cavern at Death Valley National Park that is home to a rare species of pupfish.
Storms fueled by the remnants of Hurricane Kay caused localized, heavy damage in Death Valley National Park on Saturday afternoon, September 10, 2022. California highway 190 (CA-190) is closed from CA-136 junction to Stovepipe Wells Village. Badwater Road is fully closed. Many other park roads are still closed from floods five weeks ago.