We had arrived from the west the evening before having driven from Mono Lake that afternoon. At dusk the heavens opened as we drove. We were about 30 miles from Panamint Springs. We suddenly got to a short queue of traffic on an empty road. Water pouring off the side of the desert had washed rocks and mud onto the road, blocking it. A dozen cars on the other side of the blockage were also stopped. We turned around and tried an alternative route but this soon started to look dangerous with the amount of water washing across the road, so we turned back again. We stopped and chatted to a group of German motorcycle riders before driving back towards the blockage. Once the rain had stopped people got out of their cars and began moving the rocks by hand until the road was clear again. We had pizza at Panamint when we eventually arrived and I enjoyed an amazing starry sky with no light pollution to spoil it. I got up early the following morning and drove half a mile down the road from Panamint Springs to get this view of the dawn over Death Valley further to the east of us.