When it rains in Death Valley, a thin pool of water spreads out and is collected on the salt flats acting as a giant mirror that reflects the mountains and the sky. We had heard about this phenomenon before, most notably at Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, and so, upon learning it had just rained at Death Valley earlier in the week, we immediately decided to drive there for the Martin Luther King long weekend; it very rarely rains in Death Valley.

Given the stunning sunset yesterday at this same location, we figured we couldn't go wrong coming here again for sunrise. We originally tried to find our way to the other side of the pool of water for a different perspective, but after stumbling around over soggy salt flats in the darkness of early dawn, we gave up and returned to the same vantage point as yesterday.

Thankfully it didn't matter. While we witnessed the sky turn a warm orange yesterday evening, we were treated with striking streaks of purple and pink all across the sky that morning.