Flooding 7/31, 8/5/22, and Park Reopening

[bbbb]

I was trying to hike out of the Sierras over Kearsarge Pass on Tuesday afternoon when the storms rolled in. I was approaching the pass from the west side when the storms started up. I was getting close to the Kearsarge Pinnacles and hunkered down behind a boulder for a bit before descending and setting up camp to wait out the storm. 

After hiking down to Onion Valley, I drove through Lone Pine towards Death Valley. There was a sign marked road closed on 190 (near Keeler), but the interagency visitor center in Lone Pine had heard conflicting reports over whether the road was actually closed. I decided to chance it and drove through 190 across the park. It was obvious where some of the flooding had occurred by the road was not impassable.

I must have passed the same doomed car on 190. This was between Emigrant Campground and Stovepipe:



I later saw a tow truck pulling this car out.

There was some puddling in other places, but Caltrans or whomever takes care of the roads did a great job cleaning things up.

Here's the late afternoon view near Death Valley Junction yesterday.




Finally, some clouds re-gathering yesterday evening near Pahrump: