Curves, Desert Canyon. Death Valley National Park. April 1, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Small dry plants grow in a curving crack in a two-toned desert canyon, Death Valley National Park
Passing through this deep and narrow canyon, I always watch the rock walls for little odds and ends of shape and form and color and occasional surprising bits of vegetation. If you had asked me about this section of canyon after my first passage some years ago, I might well have mentioned how narrow and deep it is and perhaps how dusty. I might have commented on the way the bottom remains in shade even in the midday heat. But repeated visits have shown me that there is much more to see, and the fact that I still see new things on every visit tells me that there is far more yet to be discovered.
On one hand this is a pretty plain photograph of some rocks with cracks running through them. On the other hand, I think there are some stories behind the scent that are interesting to contemplate. At least I think so! If you look closely you will see some very dry plants that have grown in this curving crack. It is hard to imagine a more inhospitable place for a plant to grow—perhaps a dozen feet up the nearly solid rock wall of an arid and hot desert canyon. Yet somehow these plants found a way, as did and do many other plants throughout this desert landscape. Behind the small, delicate, and even intimate element of these plants is the backdrop of a small section of a massive rock wall that towers out of sight above the frame of the photograph. Here is a boundary between two sorts of rock—I’m not enough to a geologist to make technical observations, but I do note that the upper layer is darker and more solid while the lower is lighter and has more cracks in its surface. From the upper left a crack follows the junction of the two rock layers, but for some reason the crack leaves the junction and curves back upwards into the darker rock, and it is in this surprising bit of geological dissonance that the small plants took root.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
