Photographing Death Valley- (Part 1 of 3: A Travel Photo-Journal)
In the Spring of 2018 I, with my artist friend Tom Pfannerstill, set off on a Photo-journey to experience Death Valley National Park. Tom and I have been friends since college, stayed in touch all these years, and traveled together one other time while searching out graduate schools. This time we met up in Las Vegas and after two nights started driving west from the Nevada desert towards the Death Valley Park boundary in eastern California. Along the way we stopped in Red Rocks Canyon as it came highly recommended and a "must see" waypoint. Tom was secure in the fact that this trip was going to be a great "Vision Quest" and I was open to any description that helps define such an adventure. We had 5 days and I wanted maximize our time there. Our first stop was just outside of Las Vegas at Red Rocks- all stories of Las Vegas stayed in Las Vegas and my official photo-journey started here. The following images are an abbreviated version of our trip.
Note: In addition to this brief series of photographs I will publish several other "Parts" as we spent lots of time (both early mornings and early-to-late evenings) photographing points of interest of Death Valley including the Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes-- near Stovepipe Wells --and Alabama Hills in Lone Pine, California near the base of Mt. Whitney in the High Sierra's). Needless to say, I only scratched the surface during my discovery and look forward to returning to these locations in the future.
Red Rocks after a rain storm.
This one helps to give a sense of scale.
Low clouds shroud the canyon.
The canyon floor was covered with desert plants and animals. The snakes were still hibernating.
Second stop along the way was Zabriski Point- known to some for a famous cult film by the same name.
Zabriski Point is a part of the Amargosa Range located east of Death Valley National Park in California, Noted for its erosional landscape It is composed of sediments from Furnace Creek Lake which dried up 5 million years ago.
From the vantage point of Zabriski Point one can see Badwater Basin-- our next stop.
We started our decent towards the lowest spot in North America.
Since it was Spring and had been raining there were mud flats all along the basin.
This salty, crusty surface is 235 feet below sea level. The light was directly overhead and the temperature reached 85 degrees Fahrenheit.Death Valley holds the record for highest officially recorded temperature on the planet: 134 °F on July 10, 1913
From Badwater Basin we climbed out and aimed our sights towards Golden Canyon and Artist Palette.
One can see where "Golden Canyon" got it's name.
Situated in the Black Mountains this rocky area known as "Artist Palette" provides evidence for one of the Death Valley area's most violently explosive volcanic periods. The formation is made up of cemented gravel, playa deposits, and volcanic debris, perhaps 5,000 feet thick.
All along the "Artist Drive" appeared one beautiful scene after another. I found myself pulling over many times to capture the splendor.
It seems like every point of interest was 25-30 miles apart. This is a classic desert highway scene.
Travel companion, Tom Pfannerstil (in green), stands next to what appears to be the occupant of a UFO. The famous Area 51 wasn't far from this location.
I thought the "Desert Inn" was a casino located in Las Vegas... this version, well, has seen better times. Beatty, NV.
On our return trip from Beatty, we stopped by our first "Ghost Town" of Rhyolite, CA.
There several well constructed buildings still standing- this was the train station in service during the early 1900's.
Evidence of the trains can be found on site in Rhyolite.
Caboose interior in Rhyolite.
Artifacts in and around Rhyolite train station.
From Rhyolite we traveled to Ubehebe Crater and gained several thousand feet of altitude. The crater is one half a mile across and 700 feet deep.
Hiking is popular with a robust hike around the upper rim of the crater and several to the bottom. It was cool and windy with gusts up to 50 mph.
We passed the Mesquite Flats Dunes in route to Stovepipe Wells where we'll stay for two days.
Tom found time to meditate before sunrise- the Mesquite Flats Dunes provided a location beyond all expectations. I set up to begin photographing -- it is a popular spot among visitors to Death Valley,
After two days in Stovepipe Wells we headed west towards Lone Pine, CA. We stopped in various ghost towns along the way. This one was near the famous Eureka gold mine.
Mine entrance.
This mining area stayed active until the 1940's. This in-line 8 never made it out.
Vandals have taken toll on the remaining buildings.
We continued to travel west stopping by the Charcoal Kilns. It required 4 wheel drive vehicle- lucky for us we had rented one.
With an unlimited resource of wood a successful business was carved out among the highlands in the western part of DV National Park. Charcoal was used for cooking in all of the mining towns scattered in "them thar hills".
As we crossed Panamint Valley- we had to drive up Father Crowley's Pass.
From the look-out Panamint Valley was shining white in all it's glory.
Father Crowley's lookout is a popular stopping point for drivers to regain their composure- serious "pucker-factor" driving the curvy road.
After crossing the pass we could see the High Sierra's climbing our of the valley floor.
We were heading to Lone Pine, CA- nestled into the foot hills of Mount Whitney and location of our photo-destination: Alabama Hills.
Tom meditates in this glorious location ever vigilant in his "Vision Quest". Alabama Hills is the location to over 400 feature films... it felt so familiar.
We ran into a rare desert rain storm during our return trip.
The rain produced a beautiful double rainbow. We were approaching Stovepipe Wells during mid-morning- heading back to Las Vegas where we ended our trip just as it started.
