Associated Press Larry, left, and Carol Wade of Mukilteo, Wash., launch their kayaks about a half mile south of Badwater, Calif., in Death Valley Wednesday with Telescope Peak reflected in water from recent flooding. They waded out about a quarter mile and managed a bit of paddling, although scraping bottom most of the time.
LAS VEGAS - With the driest place in North America experiencing one of the wettest winters in recent history, officials are predicting a lavish spring wildflower bloom.
"Right now, it's unbelievably lush," Death Valley National Park spokesman Terry Baldino said, "and with the mountaintops blanketed with snow, it's really beautiful."
Since July, almost 41Ú2 inches of rain have been recorded at the park weather station at Furnace Creek - about four times the amount usually received by late January. The park 180 miles west of Las Vegas has also seen the wettest two weeks in 93 years of record keeping.
More than 21Ú2 inches of rain fell from Dec. 27 to Jan. 9 in an area that usually gets less than 2 inches of rain a year.
At Badwater, the lowest spot in North America, runoff has formed a shallow lake several feet deep in some places. Some ambitious visitors have turned amphibious - bringing kayaks and canoes for rare Death Valley water excursions.
"The Badwater Basin is like a little Lake Manly," Baldino said, referring to a vast body of water, 100 miles long and 600 feet deep, that covered Death Valley 10,000 years ago.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal followed a trio that floated, paddled, and dragged kayaks and a canoe this month down an 11-mile stretch of the normally dry Amargosa River, which leads 125 miles into Death Valley.
Park Ranger Charlie Callagan said the wet winter could yield the best desert wildflower display in 50 years.
Already, flowers are blooming at the southern end of the 3.4 million acre park - the largest national park outside Alaska. The bloom is expected to gain momentum in mid-February and peak in March before temperatures climb into triple digits. Death Valley is one of the hottest places on Earth during the summer.
The weather season began with a powerful storm in mid-August, when flooding killed two people and washed out large sections of Highway 190. The road is expected to remain closed until late March or early April.
Other roads, including Highway 178 from Shoshone, Calif., have been occasionally closed by mud and water during the past six months.
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