ENTRANCE to DEATH VALLEY: Looking towards the Bullfrog Hills from Daylight Pass and the southern Grapevine Mountains. The Bare Mountains lie in the distance at right across the Amargosa Valley.

Rhyolitic cliffs of the Bullfrog Hills.

Rhyolite rock formations.

Bullfrog Hills Sweet Pea

This unusual arid-adapted rare wildflower, the Bullfrog Mountain pea (Lathyrus hitchcockianus), is endemic to a small area in southwestern Nevada and adjacent southeastern California. This species occurs in washes and canyon bottoms in rocky volcanic, gravelly or sandy soil in desert scrub above creosote bush at elevations of 1,370 to 1,585 m. It often grows entangled with nearby shrubs.

Habitat of the Bullfrog Hills sweetpea in the Bullfrog Hills, with Mormon tea (Ephedra viridis).

Bullfrog Hills Sweet Pea

In its habitat in the Bullfrog Hills.

Paperbag Bush

Also called Bladder sage (Scutellaria mexicana) this is a shrub in the mint-lavendar family with unusual menbranous air-filled shells around the fruit--"bags"--that fall off the shrub, blowing in the desert winds to help disperse seeds.

Paperbag bush and Mormon tea at the base of rhyolitic cliffs, Bullfrog Hills.

View from low hills in northern Amargosa Valley looking northwards to the Bullfrog Hills. This entire valley floor is currently filled with utility-scale solar energy project applications (see Threats).

You can see the old rail bed running along the lower edge of the colorful Bullfrog Hills, west of Beatty.

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