Tag Archives: death valley

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

Before The Dust Storm

May 22, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Just after dawn, the precursors of a day of Death Valley dust storms

I’ve been through a number of desert dust storms in and around Death Valley National Park — ranging from minor “dust blowing through the campsite” events to “damaging to my vehicle” events. (The latter was some years back as I left the park and headed out to highway 395 and, as I later found out, drove through record-breaking wind and driving dust and sand, to the permanent distress of my windshield.) It is fair to say that my feelings about such conditions are mixed. Frankly, they are very unpleasant — the dust gets into everything, from clothes to eyes to camera gear, and it is almost impossible to do much of anything if you are inside a really bad storm. In fact, near the end of the day on which I made this photograph we simply had to hunker down indoors for several hours and wait for it to stop. But there can be a kind of terrible beauty in these events as well, and if you are cautious you can photograph them.

I recall a day many years ago when I started to make sense of the antecedent conditions that lead to such storms. It was the final day of a Death Valley visit and I was down along the southeast part of the main valley, when I noticed a kind of fuzzy glow in the atmosphere. I made a few photographs and headed north to leave the park, and within an hour or so I was engulfed in a huge cloud of dust. On the day I made this photograph we went to a high overlook along the top of a mountain range to photograph dawn light. This time I recognized that strange, milky atmosphere, seen along and above the Black Mountains in the distance in the photograph. The morning was, indeed, quite beautiful. But it was only hours later that we began to see dust above us — even though we were thousands of feet up in the mountains — as a giant storm developed, and by the time we returned to the bottom of Death Valley in the mid-afternoon one of the biggest dust storms I have seen enveloped the area.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Panamint Valley and Mountains

May 13, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Looking into Panamint Valley and toward the Panamint Mountain Range

When most people think of Death Valley they probably think of incredibly hot desert conditions. Those conditions are real, and are among the reasons that I do not visit the place during the warmer times of the year. But the conditions are quite a bit more varied than that reputation would suggest. I have been snowed on in Death Valley — on one memorable occasion photographic desert wildflowers in a snow storm! — and I have encountered temperatures ranging from over 100 degrees to below freezing. The variations are related to seasons (there are some very cold places here in the winter!) and to elevation, which ranges from below sea level to over 11,000′.

This photograph captures a range of those conditions in one image. It was a pleasantly warm, though cloudy, day as I left the park. The winds were howling down below in Panamint Valley, where a dust storm was beginning to kick up. Winter snow was still thick on the highest peaks of the Panamint range, and an incoming storm was developing and promising more precipitation.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Evening Shadows, Death Valley

May 4, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The evening view down Trail Canyon, across Death Valley, and to the Black Mountains

The first day of any trip to Death Valley is often a long one for me. Typically it begins with a very early departure from the San Francisco Bay Area for the long drive down the Central Valley, east over Tehachapi Pass and then back to the north to reach the park. This year’s journey to the park was even longer since I took a first-day detour and briefly joined friends on the Carrizo Plain for an evening and a morning of wildflower photography. But the time I was on the road the second day it was mid-morning, and I arrived in Death Valley in the mid-afternoon to find winds and dust kicking up in the Valley. Not looking forward to camping in those conditions, I reconsidered and headed up to Wild Rose Canyon, where the mountains can provide some shelter.

I got there and found plenty of campsites. I grabbed one and just sat around for a while, recuperating from too much time behind the wheel. However, I knew that I wanted to do some photography on this first evening, so I worked up the energy to rise from my camp chair and head out to a favorite spot along the ridge of the Panamint Range. Often my Death Valley visits combine return visits to places I know well and want to continue to explore photographically with visits to places I haven’t been before. This spot is a very familiar one by now, and it seemed like and almost sure bet for this first evening. It was hazy — remember the wind and dust I just mentioned? — but as the color of the light warmed near the end of the day the landscape’s features became a bit more visible. This photograph looks across Trail Canyon in the foreground, with the late-day shadows already concealing the features of the ridge, toward the main portion of Death Valley, with its large salt flats. Beyond lie the Black Mountains and the southern boundary of the park, with further mountains just barely visible through the distant haze.

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

Buttes, Evening Light

May 3, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light into Blackwater Wash illuminates buttes above Death Valley

These buttes or hills have fascinated me for a long time. They project out of the gigantic gravel fields of the alluvial fan at the base of the Panamint Mountains known as Blackwater Wash. They are visible from the floor of Death Valley, across its wide expanse to the west, often partially obscured by haze late in the day. From a few high points in the Panamint range they are also visible from above, often poking up above ridges or framed by v-shaped canyons.

I made this photograph from one of those higher positions, a location along the summit ridge of the Panamint Mountains that provides views in all directions, including down into Death Valley itself. This time I was there near the end of the day, as haze filled the valley and the last sunlight of the day came over the summit of the mountain range, casting beams of light down into the canyon and lighting these hills.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: death valley

Before The Dust Storm

Panamint Valley and Mountains

Evening Shadows, Death Valley

Buttes, Evening Light

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.