Millions of flowers blanket Death Valley in first 'super bloom' in a decade [View all]

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http://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/Death-Valley-National-Park-super-bloom-wildflowers-6848910.php#photo-9444365

In a land of extremes, where a barren valley floor sinks below sea level, rain rarely falls and summer temperatures reach a toasty 120 degrees, a riot of color has exploded.

For the first time in over a decade, Death Valley National Park is experiencing a "super bloom," when millions of wildflowers blanket the barren desert.

As the driest place in North America, Death Valley receives about two inches of annual rainfall on average, but last October a series of storms walloped the basin. In one area, three inches of rain fell in just five hours. It's this fall soaking, experts say, that have triggered the spring blooms.

This is the best display since 2005 and many wildflower enthusiasts are referring to it as a "super bloom."

"I'm not really sure where the term 'super bloom' originated, but when I first came to work here in the early 1990s I kept hearing the old timers talk about super blooms as a near mythical thing–the ultimate possibility of what a desert wildflower bloom could be," Park Ranger Alan Van Valkenburg said in a press statement.