Dunes, Cottonwood Mountains, and Dust Storm. Death Valley National Park, California. February 19, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Afternoon winds whip up a dust storm over Death Valley between sand dunes and the high ridges of the Cottonwood Mountains.
Following my typical routine of “get up ridiculously early and shoot until I can’t stand it any longer, hang out during the middle of the day, and then head out for late afternoon and evening shooting,” I had been watching some interesting clouds developing far to the north of Stovepipe Wells during the day and decided that I might head up that way in the evening if they continued to hold promise. After crossing the Valley to the Scotty’s Castle road junction I could see a curtain of virga falling from those clouds to the north, so I decided to head that way.
The wind had been picking up from the south during the afternoon as another weather front approached. As I headed up along the edge of the main valley I could see that this wind was starting to pick up dust and sand from the Mesquite Dunes area near Stovepipe and from areas just north of that. I’m more familiar with the dust being carried south by winds out of the north, so this was a bit of a different site as sand/dust were being picked up from the dunes rather than being deposited there.
The dunes at the bottom of this photograph are not the familiar “main” dunes near Stovepipe, but are instead smaller dunes running north/south up the Valley. While a larger version of the photograph shows some blowing dust on these foreground dunes, the main cloud is coming from further south down the Valley. Beyond the dust and across the Valley are the hills of the Cottonwood range ascending to a ridge that still holds a bit of snow from storms over the previous couple of days, with building clouds above that would bring another dusting on this evening.
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Good lord, Rosemary. And at a location that is not going to be the most exposed to the wind!
I have my own wind story from Death Valley, too. It could be a very long one, but I’ll try to keep it short. Perhaps 10 years ago or maybe a bit longer, I was a parent chaperone on a trip to DV with my kid’s middle/high school hiking club, a group that had been run by a wonderful science teacher for many decades and which had taken kids all over the western US and to places as far-flung as Alaska. That year’s “big trip” was to be a pack trip from up in the Teakettle Junction area through the Cottonwood area and down to Death Valley above Stovepipe.
We went in April, and the first hint that things might be “interesting” was when it snowed during our visit to Scotty’s Castle. From here, the (somewhat bizarre, but sensible if you were part of this group) plan was to start walking from Scotty’s Castle towards Ubehebe Crater and then Teakettle Junction. As we walked up the valley above Ubehebe Crater it was stunningly beautiful – most of us cut off the road and just walked up the center of the valley – and there there was snow falling on the peaks all around us. The plan was that our support vehicle would go ahead with gear, drop it off, and then return to start shuttling hikers up to Teakettle, where we would camp that night in preparation for moving to the trailhead the next day. This all went pretty much according to plan, and by late afternoon everyone was there setting up camp.
It was tremendously cold – essentially like winter camping. Then as night came on the winds came up. I now know about wind and Death Valley, but this was my first real experience there and I had no idea. During the night most of the larger tents were blown down by the wind, some more than once. Those of us in smaller mountain tents didn’t suffer that fate, but we sure wondered whether our tents would stand up to the gale. It was a very different sort of wind than I had experienced before. One moment it would be completely calm – not a bit of air moving. Then you could hear a sound like a jet engine coming up/down the valley and a moment later the gust would blast through the camp. Then it would pass and return to silence again – but you knew what was coming.
This went on all night. In the morning I recall mentioning to one of my colleagues that I swore that I could actually feel the ground shaking as the gusts approached and he confessed that he had noticed the same thing.
In the end, we made the “safe” choice and backed down from our planned pack trip. We moved our camp back to the Valley and came up with a shorter alternative pack trip in its place.
I’ve experienced my share of “weather” in the Sierra, having backpacked and skied and winter camped for many years. But I have to say that in many ways the desert is a more intense and violent place when it kicks up.
Hey, did I tell you that when we were there Chrismas 09 that the wind ripped the passenger door off of the hinge and bent my front bumper…..$1,800 worth of damage….Artist Pallet.
That’s funny – I’ve yet to have a trip there where there hasn’t been some rain. Not always precisely in the valley, but either there or in the immediately adjacent areas. Last time out, in November, I got caught in a textbook desert downpour just outside Death Valley Junction. I actually turned around to get out of the storm, because it was one of those torrential rains where I was starting to worry about flooding.
Haven’t dealt with snow. Yet.
I do think the backlighting you have in this one is key. I’ve tried shooting dust storms from the leeward side of things (e.g. on the Stovepipe Wells side of the Mesquite Dunes when the wind’s coming down from the Panamints), and I just end up with a lot of haze and grey. It would seem to be key to find an angle from the side of the storm that provides a close enough backdrop of mountains, and then hope for advantageous light.
I’ll just need to keep trying. Given my track record, I can be pretty sure of nasty winds whenever I head back.
Thanks, Steve. Shooting dust storms is tricky, for a whole range of reasons. (Not the least of them is the risk to your equipment!) Often the most impressive experience is being inside one of them, but often the last thing you want to do at that point is to be outside making photographs. In addition, light in a dust storm can often end up being rather drab and flat.
The thing that was cool about this opportunity is that I was able to shoot it from the “side” of the storm, and the backlight gives a bit more definition to the clouds, the foreground dunes sort of “anchor” things, and then there are those magnificent ridges ascending in the distance.
By the way, I also have a sort of strange history with Death Valley weather. I was once forced to abandon the one pack trip I tried there on account of snow, cold, and strong winds! I’ve been through all too many dust storms. And if often rains when I go there!
Dan
Nice composition. I’ve shot a couple dust storms both at Mesquite Dunes and the smaller ones radiating northward, and I’ve never been happy with what I’ve gotten (and I’m not sure what it says about me that every trip I make to Death Valley includes a pretty robust dust storm). I like the approach of making the dunes themselves almost a minor compositional subject, and concentrating instead on the transitions between light and dark as sand and clouds obscure and filter the light.