1/10 A Very Wet Desert - Valley of Fire Campground

The Mojave Desert, where Valley of Fire is located, averages only 5" of rain per year.  In the last two days, it has received half of that--2.5" of rain!  It started out with a few sprinkles, but ended up with heavy rain last night.  I went out very briefly yesterday to take out my trash and fill my water tank up with fresh water from my hose since I ran out in the middle of the night.  (Having water to flush and wash is important, to say the least, so I would have gone out rain or not if I had needed to.)

Otherwise, I and all of my fellow campers have spent the last full two days indoors watching the rain.  This morning, it stopped raining, but was still chilly so most of stayed indoors again, although a few people left and a few more arrived.  

Here is a picture taken yesterday.  I had left my chair as an indicator when I went out to Moapa that the site was occupied, but it is really wet now. 

Can you tell why this is called "Valley of Fire"?

The next two photos were taken yesterday during a break in the rain, but you can see the rain falling across the valley and on the hills. 

There are a lot of new streams in the campground.  You can see the erosion in the sand.

And this stream went across the roadway.  There are no drains or culverts in this campground, but they do try to channel potential water.  They also pave dips in the roadways, like this one, where rain will flow across them.  This prevents erosion and damage to the roads.  

A slightly bigger stream.  Water has already drained away, but you can see that there must have been quite a bit during the height of the rain.

A wet, but no doubt very happy, creosote bush.  The leaves are very dry, but they will absorb water and plump up in a few days.  In fact, they might even bloom because the the rain!  Wish I could check back in a couple of weeks.  (I saw these in bloom a couple of years ago, and the flowers are bright yellow and very abundant.) 

A puddle in the desert.

A little stream outside my door. 

More water in the stream.  Another nice thing is that all the footprints from the past several months have been smoothed out.  Desert looks cleaner. 

 

A last view across the valley.  I will be headed out tomorrow, so will try to take photos of the road on the way out.  Who says the desert is dull and plain?       

After cleaning the restrooms, the camp hosts spent a lot of time today sweeping the sand off campsites where it had flowed during the rain.