Tag Archives: america

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Desert Gold and Mountains

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Desert Gold and Montains
“Desert Gold and Mountains” — Rugged desert mountains tower above gravel fans filled with blooming desert gold flowers, Death Valley.

I have been sharing a lot of photographs from this year’s spectacular wildflower bloom in Death Valley National Park — and I’m not quite done yet! In dry years one may have to go off searching (sometimes in vain) for landscape-carpeting flowers like these. But this year, after a previous season of good rainfall the flowers were easy to find.

How easy? I made this photograph just a few minutes from the busy Furnace Creek area. Here the desert gold flowers spilled across a broad wash, past small hills, and on into the more distant wide valley. Beyond are the dark hills at the north end of the Black Mountains.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Desert Plants and Dried Mud

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Desert Plants and Dried Mud
“Desert Plants and Dried Mud” — Small desert plants sprout on dry and cracked mud.

When spring (or late winter, actually) arrives in Death Valley National Park after a wet season, a striking show of wildflower can appear. It seems incongruous in this arid landscape, and it can be spectacular. Uncountable colorful wildflowers cover normally-dry gravel slopes. A closer look reveals even more plants underfoot, where tiny sprouts suddenly appear in many areas in the park.

This photograph focuses on that subject, and a close look reveals more and more little things in the frame — various sorts of new plants, bits of old vegetation, and more. And all of this appears against one of the subjects most irresistible to photographers, dry cracked desert mud.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Salt Creek, Sunrise

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Salt Creek, Sunrise
“Salt Creek, Sunrise” — Salt Creek flows past low hills and toward salt flats, Death VAlley.

Salt Creek is a remarkable place, a perpetually flowing creek in the middle of the hottest place on earth and the home to thousands of endangered pupfish. But I’ve also found it to be a pretty difficult place to photograph. Light is challenging, especially late in the day, when tall mountains block the light. But I return and keep working at it!

I made this photograph as the first direct light was arriving. Just beyond the area accessible via a winding boardwalk, the creek flows in many branches through this eroded terrain. From here (behind my camera position) it passes through the area where pupfish are found, and shortly after that it flows out into the salt flats.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Four Desert Star Flowers

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Four Desert Star Flowers
“Four Desert Star Flowers” — Four tiny desert star (monoptilon bellioides) flowers, Death Valley.

The desert star flower has become a bit of a… star here at the blog recently. It is one of the small flowers that you might easily overlook in Death Valley, but once you spot them they are abundant, poking up just above the ground, often in small groups. They are pretty flowers, but you have to get down close to the ground to appreciate them.

Big fields of wildflower color get the attention of visitors to Death Valley in a year like this, when earlier rains produced an impressive wildflower bloom. At the end of February we saw whole hillsides covered with desert gold and phacelia, and sand verbena covered the ground in some low places. But a closer look reveals a world of other small and inconspicuous flowers like the desert star.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.