To my surprise, I’m back early from my Sierra backpack trip. It was supposed to last 14 days but I exited on day 5. The good news is that I had a chance to visit the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of eastern California and then to travel through Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite on an evening of stunningly beautiful light.
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I’ll be out and about during the first part of August and this site will not be updated again until mid-August. Watch for new photos here at that time!
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Panamint Valley Hills. Death Valley National Park. March 28, 2005. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

This shot was taken out in the middle of the Panamint Valley on the road out of Stovepipe Wells and near what I think is called the Panamint Valley Resort. My youngest son and I were on a drive up the east side of the Sierra Nevada after dropping my daughter off at school in southern California. We had spent a good part of the day wandering around the floor of Death Valley in very cloudy and somewhat rainy weather, and we were about to head back toward Hiway 395 by the direct and rather lonely route.

One reason I stopped at this spot is that I had inadvertently spent an entire day here a few years ago. I was a parent chaperone on a week-long trip to Death Valley that involved an aborted pack trip, snow, a dust storm, cold, and you name it. On the last day we headed home from Stovepipe Wells… and the bus blew its transmission at about this spot. We ended up spending the day and a good part of the evening here waiting for a replacement bus. But that is a story for another time.

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My friends and family will groan but I’m starting another blog here today.

I have two other blogs where I post my photography: dan’s outside
and G Dan Mitchell | Photography.

***dan’s outside
is where I post about my outdoor interests so photos posted there reflect these themes. For some time I have been taking other photos that don’t really fit at that site. This new site can accommodate photos on any theme.

***G Dan Mitchell | Photography
is where I plan to eventually post the images that I think are my best. However, I often want to post photos that are current but may not ultimately make it to that site. I plan to use this new blog to post lots of images that I want to share but which might not ultimately be posted on the other sites.

– Dan
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