Desert showers bring 'salt flowers' to Death Valley

The hills in Death Valley are alive with... Salt flowers? This is what it would look like if it snowed in one of the hottest places on Earth.

Salt-covered hillsides near Harmony Borax Works with distant mountains visible through smoke. (NPS / M. Gage)

Visitors to Death Valley National park are experiencing an interesting phenomenon that people in France celebrate every year. Many hills are blooming with salt, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as "salt flowers." According to park officials, "following a bit of rain this summer, many hills are "blooming" white with salt!"

The appearance of the salt coating is actually called efflorescence and has coated many hills in the park, creating an effect not unlike what it might look like after a light snowfall. Despite the similarity to light snowfall, it certainly hasn't been cool enough for snow in Death Valley lately. Temperatures in recent weeks there have mostly been between 110 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit, with a few days topping 120.

Of course earlier this year, Death Valley made national headlines when temperatures there flirted with the all-time world record high of 134 set back in 1913 at Death Valley.

Efflorescence occurs when rain soaks into the soil dissolving the salts present beneath the surface. When the rain evaporates, it pulls the dissolved salts to the surface through capillary action leaving a fresh salty crust behind. "Over time, this white coating can erode away, but comes back brilliantly white after additional rain," park officials posted on Facebook.

People who commented on the post shared their experiences with efflorescence in the popular national park, which is famous for its extreme heat.

Efflorescence in Badwater Basin, Death Valley. Photo credit: Ed Swale

"One of my favorite pictures I’ve taken in Death Valley," Ed Swale wrote. "Some poor fool gave up walking back to the road with two boots. I can’t imagine the walk on the sharp salt around Badwater Basin."

Swale told AccuWeather he first experienced the salty crust in Iraq. Early in the morning, he said, "the water would recede back into the soil and the women of the villages would be collecting the salt for [the] preservation of their food."

Among many other countries, the French are also known for harvesting salt. Efflorescence is actually a French word that means "the formation of a powdery surface," or "the state of blossoming" or the "production of flowers." Every summer harvesters in the South of France, sometimes called salt shepherds, hand-harvest 280,000 tons of salt. The Camargue, a vast and wild river delta that empties out into the Mediterranean Sea, experiences rainfall totals and heat that make it a great place to extract the sea salt.

Many hope the summer rain in Death Valley will make for a more impressive spring bloom for which the park is widely known. But the incredible spring flowers tend to be the exception, not the rule. According to the park's website, a good wildflower year depends on a few key weather conditions:

• Well-spaced rainfall throughout the winter and spring

• Sufficient warmth from the sun

• Lack of drying winds

Park officials say it's too soon to tell if the recent summer rain will impact the spring bloom. But the salt flowers are creating a beauty of another kind. As it was put on the park's Facebook page, "The newly whitened hills reflect the rosy light of sunrise or sunset making for otherworldly views that Death Valley National Park is known for!"

If you want to see them for yourself, visit the hills located just north of the Harmony Borax Works along CA 190 within the park.

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