“Crater Wall Detail (vertical)” — Eroded strata of a Death Valley crater wall.
We ran into a photographer friend in Death Valley, and she reminded me of this location. It is a surprising and unusual geological formation, but one that I have never felt too enthusiastic about photographing. But her enthusiasm persuaded me to go there and try again. We got sidetracked by a different subject nearby, but we finally made it here late in the day.
The late arrival may have been fortuitous, since the sun had dropped behind nearby mountains, and much of the filtered light came from other bright clouds that were still sunlit. This softer light filled in the shadows of this rugged formation.
Speaking as a complete non-expert, I think that what we’re looking at here is a boundary between the low point of a small playa-like section of dried earth and a slightly higher area with black pebbles. The pebbles appear to be volcanic material from a nearby eruption that took place hundreds or thousands of years ago. (The particular feature may have erupted as recently as 800 years, though it has also possibly been longer.)
“Autumn Trees, Canyon Wall” — A small grove of autumn cottonwood trees next to the wall of a Utah canyon.
A few years ago three of us explored a long section of narrow canyon in Utah, looking for photographs in this rich landscape. We started in a broad valley where a stream flowed between low hills, but soon the walls rose and steepened and the valley narrowed, and we found ourselves following a creek. The canyon was alternately wide and then narrow and constricted.
“Aeolian Bedforms” — Wind-caused ripples in desert sand dunes, Death Valley.
This is probably the classic notion of what a desert looks like — fields of wind-formed sand dunes stretching into the distance. In truth, such dunes typically cover only a very small fraction of the desert landscape. That’s certainly true in Death Valley National Park, where large, impressive dunes are only found in a handful of locations. We visited one of them on the final morning of our late February trip.
