Click on any image for a larger view
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| Mesquite Flat Dunes |
Our destination is Death Valley National Park. Last year, we spotted openings for Gary
Hart’s Death Valley photography workshop, it fills fast, within a couple days
of it opening. We jump on it immediately. A couple years ago we attended his Yosemite
Valley workshop. We enjoy attending his
workshops, in our eyes, he is an outstanding landscape photographer. Gary shares his knowledge, teaching us to plan
our shots then, applying it to our own photography. Between shooting sessions, we have group
image critiques, we see everybody’s selected image, then learn ways to look at
them differently, possibly improving them.
My drive from TX to Death Valley takes several days. Texas makes up a good portion of the drive, taking
almost two days to reach New Mexico. For
the start of my trip I’m on the road myself.
Nicida, a new grandma, is assisting her son and daughter-in-law with
their first daughter. We will catch up
with each other in Las Vegas. The car is
full of moderate and cold weather gear.
We expect 60’s to 70’s in Death Valley, and 20’s – 30’s at the Grand
Canyon.
In our continuing goal of visiting all the National Parks we
add Death Valley bringing our total to 31, only 32 to go. We’ve already counted the Grand Canyon having
visited the north rim two years ago.
Las Vegas
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| Red Rock Valley |
Nicida and I spend a day in Las Vegas before heading off to
Death Valley. No, we don’t visit the
strip, or gamble at any of the casinos.
Instead, we head off to Red Rock Valley National Recreation Site, a park
at the southwest corner of Las
Vegas. As the name suggests we are
surrounded by red and many other hued rocks.
A short hike on the Calico Hills trail reveals many layers of sand
compressed over millennia forming the rocks we see today. Snow on the north facing canyon walls, hides
from the sun. Canyon Drive provides a
picturesque tour of the park. We stop at
overlooks and sites of Indigenous petroglyphs and pictographs. In the shadow of the canyon walls the air is markedly
cooler. There is no camping within the
park, but hikers have many trails to choose from. Red Rock Valley National Recreation Site is
definitely a place to add to your itinerary while visiting Las Vegas.
Death Valley
Our drive to Death Valley starts with Las Vegas traffic which
dwindles to a trickle only a few miles outside of town. At the turnoff from state road 95 to Death
Valley we notice we are the only ones on the road. The land is flat, arid, and shrub
covered. The town of Amargosa Valley is
a scattering of mobile homes and single level dwellings.
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| Manly Peak - Zabriskie Point |
Approaching Death Valley, the terrain changes. What was flat, imperceptibly turns into a
valley. Our drive slowly descends but we
do not notice, instead our attention is drawn to the color change. Beige, tan, and chocolate hills surround
us. The GPS informs us the elevation at
the park entrance is 3,000’. Passing the
Inn at Death Valley a sign informs us we just passed sea level, and we are still
descending. We find our hotel, The Ranch
at Death Valley, somewhere between 100’ and 200’ below sea level. Our hotel is surrounded by green grass,
shrubs and palm trees. It’s an oasis in
the middle of a desert, a man-made oasis.
Once outside our little oasis, we have to search for vegetation.
Photo workshop
We meet in one of the conference rooms for our introductory
meeting. There are a total of nine
fellow photographers, and our instructors, Gary and Jay.
Of the 9 students, 8 have attended previous workshops with Gary. After general discussion of Death Valley, we
learn our daily schedule with proposed locations. All plans are weather dependent. Good weather is forecast for the next several
days. Meeting complete, we head down to Death
Valley Ranch registering for our rooms, then loading up or camera gear. After that we are on our way to Hell’s Gate,
for a sunset shoot.
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| Hell's Gate |
On our way to Hell’s Gate, we pass the sign, ‘the lowest
point in North America -282’. Arriving
at Hell’s Gate Gary briefs us what make this place unique and general
suggestions for composition. Everybody
scatters across the side of the hill.
The sun and clouds cooperate to some degree promising great color will
follow, but not tonight.
We return to our room after dark. It has cooled off from the
70-degree temperatures of the day. We
are tired from the long day; driving from Las Vegas, taking in our first views
of Death Valley, meeting and greeting the others in our little group and
actually getting out practicing our photography. However, we are not finished, we need
sustenance, Nicida and I walk to one of the restaurants near our hotel. On the way we spot another photography workshop
group receiving a lecture by a roaring campfire.
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| Badwater Basin |
The next morning, we are up before 5. Our destination; Badwater Basin, an 18+ mile
drive from our hotel. The eastern
horizon is just barely lighting up as we arrive. There is just enough light that we can
navigate without headlamps. Our spot is
one of those locations an experienced Death Valley visitor knows about, away
from the general tourist spots. We are
in the salt flat, officially 282’ below sea level. The edge of Badwater Basin starts with
irregular salt polygons bordered by dried mud. Walking further into the salt
flat the mud lessens until we see nothing but salt, salt polygons with salt
borders. Each of us pick a spot that
inspires us. Everyone sees something
different, some shoot high, others hug the ground. The combination of sun and clouds delivers
muted colors. Giving up on the early
morning colors we start our trip back, stopping at Devil’s Golf Course. It is another part of Badwater Basin, with
the terrain made up of halite crystal formations, basically rock salt. A combination of evaporation, wind and rain
form these rock-like formations. I would
not want to play golf here.
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| Artist Palette |
Our eventful morning isn’t finished. We finally make it back to the hotel to stop
for breakfast. The main restaurant has a
buffet line. We end up eating here
several times, as there are few other options.
Unfortunately, the food is not consistent, sometimes there is a lot to
choose from, other times not. Being in
the park is an advantage for accessibility to sightsee, but from our point of
view the meals could be better.
At the image review we study each other’s images. There are nine of us, there are nine
different scenes from the places we have visited. Gary points out spots to make improvements;
crop a bit here, darken this area, change the location where the image was
taken to include more of this, less of that.
All changes are minor, but the changes do improve each image. We walk away happy with our results, taking
the suggestions with us to the next outing.
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| Waiting for sunset |
After lunch we head out to Mesquite Flat Dunes for
sunset. Mesquite Dunes is 22 miles
northwest of our hotel, towards Stove Pipe Wells. We pull off at a remote spot, starting our
almost one-mile hike to the dunes. Small
shrubs somehow survive these conditions.
Approaching the dunes, we stay close to each other, not spoiling the
dunes with footprints. We shoot until
the partially red sky disappears, then walk back to our cars, for the night
drive to our hotel.
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| Mosaic Canyon |
Multiple Star Wars movies used this canyon as the
backdrop. Several of our group know
this, not being real Star Wars fans neither Nicida or I recognize it. The terrain is breathtaking. Rocks; small, medium and large are layered,
like a cake. Rocks are worn smooth from river
water, carrying debris from flooding rains, eroding everything in its path.
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| Dante's View |
After lunch and another informative image critique we are
off to Dante’s View. We make a 25-mile
drive to Dante’s View putting us at the top of the mountains on the east side
of the valley overlooking Badwater Basin.
We are at an elevation of 5400’. The wind is strong, and gusty. Gary informs us of three options for the best
views. Stay near the parking lot, hike
down from the parking lot to an overlook, or hike up from the parking lot to another
overlook. Nicida and I opt to hike to
the higher location. The trail narrows
as we ascend. It is wide enough that we
don’t really have to worry about the hike – but you do want to pay attention to
where you step.
The view is worth the
hike. The only drawback is the
wind. While strong in the parking lot,
it is relentless here, with higher gusts, keeping us on our toes. We have a 180° view of Badwater Basin. Our earlier drive along Badwater Basin felt
like a long drive, from here we see how large it is. As sunset approaches the sky lights up in
pinks, reds, and oranges before going dark, signifying the end of another
day. This is by far the best sunset, so
far. We return to our hotel in the dark.
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| Manly Peak |
Another day, another early start. This morning we head to Zabriskie Point, a
short 5-mile drive from the hotel. We
arrive about 25 minutes before moonset, which occurs about 10 minutes before
sunrise. The overlook is ¼ mile from the
parking lot. A lot of people are on the
upper level for the occasion. Again, it
pays to be with an experienced ringleader.
He leads us down to the lower level which provides better views of the
terrain.
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| Zabriskie Point |
Upon our arrival nobody is here, so we pick the prime spots. Shortly after setting up, we are joined by
several dozen others, with cameras and phones.
Clear skies give us great views of the moon setting, then disappearing
behind the mountains. Five minutes later
clouds commence their ritual of glowing pink, progressing through to white with
the full force of the sun. The distant mountains,
and close-up badlands follow the same ritual, glaring at us in the brilliant
sunlight. We depart Zabriskie Point
happy to have witnessed this phenomenon.
We will continue our workshop, reconvening in Lone Pine, CA
on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Alabama Hills
We take just over two hours to drive the 105 miles seesawing
between two mountain passes, and two valleys, on our way to Lone Pine. The tremendous snows California has received
recently are a spectacle on the Sierra
Nevada. As far as we can see, the
mountain tops are covered with thick white powder.
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| Mobius Arch, Alabama Hills |
Our destination is the Alabama Hills, the foothills of the
Eastern Sierra Nevada near Lone Pine. It
is a famous place, both for its rock formations and numerous movie set
locations. Maps can be found in Lone
Pine showing where and what movies were shot.
The main road west out of Lone Pine leads us to Movie Road. From there the dirt road rambles through and
around rock outcroppings. Multiple roads
branch off from Movie Road allowing one to spend many hours roaming around
finding their own ‘set’ to make their own movie. Trails take off from parking areas leading
you to arches and other picturesque locations. We are here to witness sunset.
Having snow makes our trip special, CA has been under drought conditions
for the past decade, this much snow has been a rarity for at least that long. We end our evening early, the mountains
covered with clouds. Better luck
tomorrow.
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| Mt. Williamson |
Our final day. We
start early again, wanting to be in position for another moon set and
sunrise. Our group is the first to
arrive at the parking area. We exit our
vehicles to a blustery wind. Everybody heads in different directions with ideas
in mind for the moon and sun events.
Nicida and I hike to a spot, set up, but within a few minutes we are
chased away by the wind. It causes our
heavy tripods to shudder; it is so bad I can actually feel the camera vibrate -
not good for photography. Not only that,
it is cold. Forced to move, we find a
swale, providing a place to hide under the intense wind. We witness another spectacular moonset
following the sunrise on the Sierras. We
hang around for a while seeing the shadows creep across the mountain
faces. Our excitement wanes as the sun
is too harsh for our cameras to handle the bright sunlit mountains and the deep
shadows of the foothills. The cold wind
may have also had a little to do with our decision to end our time here. |
| Mt Whitney |
We reconvene at the hotel, have breakfast, visit a while, then
say our goodbyes. Everyone else starts
their trips back home. Nicida and I are
staying another day to visit the area and do our laundry before heading back
the Death Valley for another two days of touring.
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| Teddy Bear Rock |
A visit to a grocery store, supplies us with cereal, for
several breakfasts, snacks, for the road and drinking water. The weather in the afternoon has calmed down
from this morning’s windy conditions. We
wander between the formations looking for vignettes. There is no way we can do the area justice in
one afternoon. Deciding to call it a day
we take the road up toward the Whitney Portal Road. At the end one catches the trailhead to Mount
Whitney, the highest mountain in the lower 48.
Driving ever higher through the foothills we encounter snow. Our road becomes two tracks in the snow, encouraging
us to turn around, and head for our hotel.
Our last stop in Lone Pine, is a gas station, where we fill up at the inexpensive
price of $5.00 / gal. (It is over $6.00
/ gal. in death Valley.)
Death Valley
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| Devil's Golf Course |
Our drive back to Death Valley is uneventful, for the most
part. We have a close encounter with an
Air Force jet doing a flyby only a few hundred feet above us. We see a dark streak zip by, then hear the
loud roar of a jet engine traveling in the same direction. Stopping, we hope to see more fly byes but
not this time. Resuming our drive, we see
less than a dozen vehicles between Lone Pine and the entrance to Death Valley. Entering the park, we turn off at Mosaic
Canyon revisiting the remnants of the eternal clash between water and
rock. I stop and begin shooting once I
enter the canyon. Nicida continues inside
the canyon working her way back toward the entrance. Hikers abound. Most pass by oblivious to our activities. Some ask what we are shooting, others are
proud that they can do the same thing with their iPhone. We smile, going back to concentrating on our
compositions.
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| Borax Wagon Train |
The Harmony Borax Works is a few miles from The Ranch at
Death Valley. Borax was discovered in
1881. It is a naturally occurring
mineral which can be found in dry lakebeds.
Three tons of borax was processed daily during the colder months, then
hauled out of the valley using twenty-mule teams. The wagons are huge, 16’ long x 4’ wide x 6’
deep. The rear wheels are taller than
me. In addition to the wagons loaded
with borax, another wagon, carrying 1,200 gallons of water was pulled along
providing water for the men and animals making the trip - 165 miles, one-way. My
memory of twenty-mule teams and borax comes from television, when I was a
child.
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| Keane Wonder Mine |
Later, we travel back to Badwater Basin for another
opportunity to shoot the formations, then on to Artist Palette for sunset. It was easier finding interesting subjects
when we visited in the early morning during the workshop. However, we still enjoy our time at these
locations. Stopping at the visitor
center we pick one of the ranger’s brains for additional places to visit. He suggests Keane Wonder Mine. It was dug in the early 1900’s becoming one
of the most profitable gold mines in Death Valley. The three-mile dirt road takes a while to
drive, especially with my low ground clearance Toyota, but we make it. We are the only ones visiting the site this
morning. Remnants of the mill and
tramway are open for exploration.
Death Valley is a special place to visit. We enjoy the 70-degree temperatures of early
February. Given the early start times of
our workshop we did not venture out during the night to enjoy the dark skies
seen at Death Valley.
On to the Grand Canyon.
Thanks for stopping by,
Mark
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