“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.
“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.
“Blue Playa” — Intensely blue dry mud on Death Valley’s hidden “Blue Playa.”
I have photographed in Death Valley National Park for almost three decades. I have heard whispered rumors of this remarkable “Blue Playa” for years, but no one would share anything definite about it. All I knew was that somewhere in a remote and seldom-visited area of this vast park there was purportedly a small playa featuring astonishingly colorful soil which, in the right lighting conditions, is so blue that it rivals the color of a clear sky. This has been on my mind for years.
Since those who know weren’t talking, it was clear that I’d have to do some sleuthing. All I knew was that the place is remote, surrounded by difficult mountains, and not terribly large. Out of respect for the feature — and concern about potential damage should the location become widely known — I’m going to omit specific details. But here’s as much of the story as I can share publicly.
“Morning Sky, Edge of Lake Manly” — Morning cloud-filled sky above the shore of Lake Manly.
It looks like I’m finally coming to the end of this season’s Death Valley Photographs. But there were quite a few, many featuring Lake Manly, the temporary lake flooding Badwater Basin. When the lake appears after a wet year it gives us an unusual opportunity in this desert landscape — to photograph reflected sky and mountains where we would usually see a salt flat.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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