Hillary in Death Valley

We fear for Death Valley in the approaching storm, The park has been hammered over the past few years by a few storms which have damaged roads, trapped visitors, and shut down whole portions of the park.

And this storm promises to be even worse. There is no real soil in Death Valley, nothing to absorb rainfall. So the rain falls and immediately becomes run off. In an area that receives an annual average of only 3 or 4 inches of rain a year, getting this kind of a downpour all at once means that flash floods become powerful forces.

We'd love to be there to see it, but we're not that crazy. And we fear that once it's over, there will be significant damage to roads and infrastructure, which will make visiting more difficult in the future. Keep a few good thoughts in mind for Death Valley over the next few days.