It’s unclear when Death Valley National Park will reopen to visitors after heavy rains from Tropical Storm Hilary forged new gullies and crumbled roadways at the site of one of the hottest places in the world, officials said.
The storm dumped a furious 2.2 inches (6 centimeters) of rain Aug. 20, roughly the amount of rainfall the park usually receives in a year. This year’s rainfall broke its previous record of 1.7 inches (4 centimeters) in one day, set in August of last year.
“Two inches of rain does not sound like a lot, but here, it really does stay on the surface,” Matthew Lamar, a park ranger, told the Los Angeles Times. “Two inches of rain here can have a dramatic impact.”
The park, which straddles eastern California and Nevada, holds the record for the hottest temperature recorded on the planet — 134 degrees Fahrenheit (57 degrees Celsius), reached in 1913.
Pockets of water sit in low spots in the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes after floods. Aug. 2023. (NPS 
Rocks, mud and floodwater being cleared from highway 190 after heavy rains hit Death Valley National Park early evening August 20. (NPS) 
Floodwaters spill across the road, destroying pavement in Death Valley, California. Aug. 2023. (NPS) 
Flooding from heavy rain damaged CA-190 between Zabriskie Point and Furnace Creek. Photo taken morning of August 21, 2023. (NPS) 
Flooding at Devils Cornfield off CA 190 in Death Valley. Aug. 2023. (NPS) 
Floods over HWY 190 in Death Valley. Aug. 2023. (NPS) 
This undated photo released by the National Park Service shows California State Route 190 (SR 190) missing shoulders and undercut in several areas in Death Valley National Park, Calif., after Tropical Storm Hilary dropped more than 2 inches of rain on the park in August. On Monday, Sept. 4, 2023, officials say it could take months for the park to reopen to visitors after the storm. (Nico Ramirez/National Park Service via AP) 
Floodwater rushes over CA 190 into Gower Gulch near Zabriskie Point. August 2023 (NPS)
Officials say it could be months before the park reopens. It has been closed since Hilary, the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, swept through the state in August.
Matthew Lamar, a park ranger, told the Times that about 900 of the park’s nearly 1,400 miles (2,250 kilometers) of roads have been assessed.
Repair costs are estimated at $6 million, but only for one of the park’s main roads, State Route 190, and a small part of State Route 136.
“We don’t have a timeline yet,” park spokesperson Abby Wines told The Associated Press on Monday. “Caltrans has said they expect to fully open 190 within three months, but they often are able to open parts of it earlier.”
Some familiar sites survived the storm, including Scotty’s Castle, a popular visitor destination.
Young and adult endangered pupfish at Devils Hole cavern survived, although eggs were likely smothered by sediment, the park said on social media last month. Endangered Salt Creek pupfish also survived, the newspaper reported.
