Death Valley Photos

Shown below are a few of the photos I have taken on this week's trip to Death Valley National Park in California.

The first photo is of the "moving rocks" of Racetrack Playa, in the northwestern section of the park. The Playa is an old, dry lakebed, and rocks falling from the rock face on the southern side of the Playa mysteriously move across the Playa surface. Apparently no one has ever seen the rocks actually move, but the moving rocks leave tracks, some as long as 3000 feet. There are several theories, but the most accepted theory is that following a rainstorm, the Playa surface becomes slippery, and with the reduced friction and extremely high winds (80-90 MPH?), the rocks are believed to slide across the surface, leaving tracks in the mud. The mud surface is usually dry, hard, and cracked.




The photo below was taken at Zabriskie Point, one of the most famous overlooks at Death Valley. In the early morning, just after the sun rises above the horizon, the shadows cast by the terrain are striking. The most common photo at Zabriskie is the panorama of Death Valley from the paved overlook. Many other photo opportunities are available at Zabriskie!

Late one afternoon, as the sky clouded over and the entire valley turned gray, I was pretty discouraged about the prospects for finding anything photogenic during the "magic light" of sunset. Luckily, I headed out to the salt flats, about 3/4 mile south of the visitor platform at Badwater, and stayed for the sunset show. Just after the sun went down behind the Panamints, the sun cast "corpuscular beams" skyward with the beautiful orange beams providing a striking contrast to the blue of the salt crystals of the salt flats. I continued to stay at the same location for perhaps another half-hour, and was treated to a beautiful gold streak of light through the clouds over the Panamints...and captured a photo that I will upload later. The photo below is the first of several beautiful sunset photos. Moral to the story: don't leave when the sun goes down!

Early one morning, I got out of bed at around 5:15 AM to head to the Stovepipe Wells dunes, which are just east of Stovepipe Wells Village. I left the car and headed out across the rocky soil towards the dunes while it was still pitch black. I couldn't see the dunes, but had a pretty good recollection of where they were relative to the road, and managed to head directly towards the tallest dune mostly by dead reckoning under the light of my LED flashlight (mostly used to avoid an unwanted encounter with a sidewinder rattle snake!). Trudging over the dunes with 40 lbs of camera gear and a tripod is a lot of work! I arrived at the location I chose for taking sunrise shots about 20 minutes before the sun came over the horizon. Believe me, by the time I was done shooting and trudged back through the sand to Stovepipe Wells, I was ready for breakfast!

Here is another view of the dunes, taken on 4/1/2008 just after sunrise. This time, the air was relatively calm, with gentle (10 MPH?) breezes...much easier for photography!

On my Death Valley trip, I also took a side-trip to Antelope Valley to see the California Poppy Preserve, which was in the beginning of a great bloom. Unfortunately for me, the day I arrived there, the winds were averaging (yes, averaging) 60-65 MPH, and the ranger said the winds were "hurricane force" and the "strongest I've ever seen here". Lots of blowing dust (and blowing blossoms) made photography impossible from this location. I headed through the Gorman Hills area north of LA to see if there were wildflowers there...the Gorman Hills can have some of the most spectacular wildflower blooms in California. Unfortunately I was just around 1 - 2 weeks too early for the real show. Below is a single photo I took of the Gorman Hills area as I passed through.

Death Valley is home to around 100 wild burros. The Park management is increasingly concerned that they are overgrazing and pushing out the mountain goats that normally inhabit the higher elevations in the Panamints. These burros were in the valley near Panamint Springs, between the Springs and the Panamint Dunes in the north end of the valley. There were actually around 6 or 7 in the pack...and even though these burros are clearly showing that they know the photographer is taking their picture...I liked their pose enough to take a shot and post it here.

Ah yes...the classical shot of Zabriskie Point...perhaps a bit "wider" than many. I haven't really edited any of my Zabriskie shots yet, but here is one that I had to post. This is taken from an area along the ridge to the right of the visitor overlook. I hiked up the ridge a fair way to get a higher vantage point over the valley, and to narrow the visible part of the valley between the prominant point (sorry...don't know the name of the point on the right yet!)...and the ridge on the left. I'll post more in a week or so, after I get back home from my trip and can work on a faster computer!

Here is a photo of the Salt Creek Pupfish, an endangered fish species living in Death Valley. In this photo (no surprise), the fish on the left is a male, and the fish on the right is a female. The fish were mating while I was at the creek today (4/1/2008).

There were several other animals evident at Salt Creek, including several species of birds, and lizards...most of which were too quick to capture during the short time I was there. The Killdeer below was most cooperative, spending quite a while pulling larvae (?) out of the sand in the creekbed. I have several photos of this bird...and haven't decided which I like best yet. I'll post other shots after I get back to Seattle.