There is something. a little unusual about this post. I didn’t pick this photograph so much for aesthetic reasons as for its inclusion of some fascinating features in this part of Death Valley. Let’s start with the obvious. There are desert gold wildflowers in the foreground, but if you look closely you can see many more of them across this broad Vally on the dark hillside. Keep reading to learn something about that hillside.
This area as near the south end of Death Valley. In prehistoric times the valley was filled by a very large and rather deep Lake Manly. How deep? Look at the left side of the photo where yellow flowers faintly outline a series of terraces. These marked the shoreline of the lake at various times in the distant past. Yes, a huge portion of this landscape would have been submerged! One more interesting thing — the light-colored line rising from left to right in front of the dark hill is the Amargosa River, which flows into Badwater Basin and still, in we years, contributes to the occasional reappearance of a much-diminished Lake Manly.
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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
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