Death Valley Roadtrip

Once we popped over the small pass separating Trona from the Panamint Valley, we started seeing more and more flowers--like the sheet of yellow flowers above. The peaks in the background are the Panamint Range, which top out around 11,000', or 3300m. On the other side (to the east), is Death Valley.

Here are two interesting plants we saw a lot of: the first is one of the standard yellow plants (an oenothera, I believe), the second is a phacelia. There are many different species of phacelia in Death Valley; most are purple, though there was one that was white.

Yellow and purple are the predominant colors, by far. There's not a lot of reds, or pinks, or even oranges, and few whites. Guess that says something about the pollinators, which are probably solitary bees and beetles and flies. But I'm not sure...

Next, into the northern end of Death Valley.