Rugged Terrain, Lower Titus Canyon. Death Valley National Park, California. March 28, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Details of the rugged cliffs and walls rising above lower Titus Canyon in Death Valley National Park.
Titus Canyon Road is one of the marvels of Death Valley National Park. It begins in high desert of Amargosa Valley near the town of Beatty and the ghost town of Rhyolite, winds over the summit of the Grapevine Mountains, drops precipitously into upper Titus Canyon, passes a number of historically interesting sites, passes through a very narrow and deep section in the lower canyon, and then suddenly emerges into the vastness of Death Valley.
In the lower section of the canyon, the wash becomes very narrow, passing through a twisty slot canyon and is, in places, barely wide enough for the one-lane gravel road. Here the walls of the canyon press tightly together and rise steeply for hundreds of feet. Some places are so deep that the sun rarely penetrates to the bottom.
Fortunately for the preservation of the canyon the road is horrible, at least if you are used to more civilized driving. It is a one-way road and the whole thing is gravel. Sections are in decent shape, but it other places the road passes over narrow and twisty sections next to precipitous drop-offs and then dives steeply into deep canyons. At times the route is closed after heavy rains or other conditions that make the route impassable.
Fortunately, the section that is perhaps the most impressive in many ways – the deep slot canyon near the bottom – is easily accessible by foot from Death Valley. After a short drive up to the canyon entrance on a gravel road to a parking area, you can enter the canyon on foot and walk up as far as you want. This photograph was made within the lower mile of the canyon during the late morning, when the light penetrates more deeply into the canyon and creates a glow on the canyon walls.
G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Interesting thought, Chris – and something I considered while I worked on this one. Since I often prefer the 4:3 ratio and my camera shoots 3:2, I usually crop something from the “ends” of the photographs. In this one I cropped a bit of the lower portion of the image that might have provided what you are describing.
When I look at the photograph, I see the receding walls of forbidding and rugged rock broken by a few small plants and the bits of direct light on edges of the rocks. In a larger version of the image, it actually seems to hold some glowing light. But I’m pretty sure that this is hard to see in the little jpgs I post online.
Take care,
Dan
I can rarely come up with a constructive criticism for your work Dan, but with this photo perhaps seeing the canyon floor would help give it some perspective. As it is it looks a bit flat. Still you might have put just put this on my to-do list for my next Death Valley trip.