A small dry wash runs past folded patterns of eroded hills in morning light at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California.
This is another in my “up close and personal” sequence of photographs of details of the geology at Zabriskie Point. Zabriskie is undeniably an incredibly beautiful spot, but after photographing “the view” a number of times my attention was drawn to some of the smaller details of the surrounding terrain. While I’ll still shoot the famous view(s) from this location when conditions are special, I now spend more time using a long lens to pick out small elements of the scene – and there are a lot of them to work with!
On this morning the light was, at times, very special. When I made this photograph the typical sidelight from the early sun was diffused and filtered by some high clouds in the east, and this soft light is different than what I’ve seen here before – it seems to me to have a subtle glow.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 150mm
ISO 200, f/14, 1/40 second
keywords: zabriskie, point, gower, gulch, wash, folds, eroded, hills, formations, crack, earth, desert, barren, morning, light, sand, gravel, tan, brown, death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, detail, landscape, nature, stock, geology, scenic, travel, dry, hill, gully
A “moving rock” beneath overcast morning skies at the Racetrack Playa, Death Valley.
First a bit of background about “the Racetrack,” the location of the famous “moving rocks” in Death Valley National Park. About 25 miles out in the desert back-country of the park on a very bad gravel road there is an isolated and desolate playa known as “the Racetrack.” (For those considering a visit, getting to the Racetrack is no trivial matter. The drive takes nearly two hours one-way and the road is awful, with some of the worst wash-board surface I’ve ever encountered. There are absolutely no services along the road or at the Racetrack – no water is available and your cell phone won’t work.) The name of the place comes, in some circuitous way, from the mysterious rocks that have clearly traveled across the playa, sometimes many hundreds of yards, and left tracks gouged into the playa surface. The most likely explanation for the phenomenon involves a combination of a periodically flooded playa, extremely high winds, and rare occasions when it is cold enough to freeze the surface of collected water, locking the rocks in place and allowing the wind to move them. I’ve never heard anything concrete about the frequency of this alignment of conditions, but as far as I know no one has ever observed the rocks actually moving, nor is there any indication that they have moved recently.
I’ve been out there three times in the past, and had great conditions for doing photography. On this visit I had plans to photograph in sunset and sunrise light and to attempt night photography of the rocks under the full moon. (I did the latter once before, but was less familiar than I am now with how to best do this with a DSLR.) Since I’ve had such good luck with weather and lighting conditions in the past, I suppose I was due for less than optimum conditions… and that is what I encountered. Shortly after arriving at the playa the sky was covered by high, thin clouds. Except for a brief moment close to sunset this made late day photography difficult. The overcast stuck around until I left then next morning, making the planned full moon night photography an impossibility, and the morning light was also challenging.
That said, I’m still glad I went. Standing in the middle of this empty playa completely alone as the day ends or begins is an amazing experience that few people get to have. And I did manage to bring back a few photographs that I think will “work.” This one was shot fairly early in the morning at what might have been around sunrise, if a sunrise had actually occurred.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Morning light illuminates a dry creek bed winding though late season meadow grasses and trees near Fletcher Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.
As the trail at Fletcher Lake heads upward to begin the climb towards Evelyn Lake there is an area in the meadow to the left of the trail where small trees have begun to infiltrate the meadow and there is now a “mini-forest” of sorts. I’ve photographed this spot – this exact spot, actually! – before, and I often like to shoot it in the morning light when the low angle sun first hits the meadow. Here a dry seasonal runoff creek winds between the trees in this section of mixed meadow and young forest.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
A dry creekbed meanders through a boulder-filled golden late-season Sierra Nevada meadow at sunset near Evelyn Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.
This is another view of the “backyard” of my solo-backpacking camp site near Evelyn Lake back in early September of this year. Dusk has fallen across the meadow and the twisting creekbed leading to the lake, but a bit of alpenglow lingers on the clouds beyond the tree-lined ridge.
This photograph is evidence of the early onset of “fall” in the high country. Although the equinox was still nearly two weeks away, the plants here had lost their summer appearance – the meadow was almost entirely brown or golden and the small creek, which would contribute to the flooding of this lakeside meadow earlier in the season had already stopped flowing.
(By starting my “fall” season in late summer in the high country I can manage to experience fall colors for at least three months every year!. I often see the first hints of the change in the highest country even earlier than the date of this photograph. Then by late September and early October the Sierra aspen color show is in full swing. By the end of the month I can find great colors at lower elevations on the west side of the range, such as in Yosemite Valley. After that the colors continue to develop through November in the coastal areas of central and northern California, and here in the SF Bay Area there are still a lot of fall colors to be seen.)
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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