Death Valley '49ers group—the Jayhawkers—wanted to stay with the original plan of traveling west. The group eventually split and went their separate ways but they both were to have two things in common. They were both saved from dying of thirst by a snow storm and they both ended up meeting again at Ash Meadows in the Amargosa Desert of the Amargosa Valley located east of Death Valley. From here they continued on, following the Amargosa River bed to present-day Death Valley Junction, California, and then along the same route followed by current California State Route 190 past the Funeral Mountains. On Christmas
Death Valley Greenland Ranch station averaged . The wettest month on record is January 1995, when fell on Death Valley. The wettest period on record was mid-2004 to mid-2005, in which nearly of rain fell in total, leading to ephemeral lakes in the valley and the region and tremendous wildflower blooms. Snow with accumulation has only been recorded in January 1922, while scattered flakes have been recorded on other occasions. In 2005, Death Valley received four times its average annual rainfall of . As it has done before for hundreds of years, the lowest spot in the valley filled with a wide,