This photograph is a bit of an exercise in changing my perspective. If you were in Death Valley or other places where sand verbena grows and blooms, you might first notice a pinkish-purple color out on a gravel slope somewhere. Getting closer you would see large, sprawling individual plants with large pink-purple “flowers.” But a closer look reveals that these are actually globular clusters of many small flowers.
Continue reading Sand Verbena Flowers
Stopping to photograph these formations was almost an afterthought. We had been far down a remote road in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument photographing even more obscure locations, and we were headed back towards Escalante. Not being familiar with this area back then, I was surprised when we stopped here along the way, but then this little red rock garden began to attract me.
Continue reading Two Towers
There is something. a little unusual about this post. I didn’t pick this photograph so much for aesthetic reasons as for its inclusion of some fascinating features in this part of Death Valley. Let’s start with the obvious. There are desert gold wildflowers in the foreground, but if you look closely you can see many more of them across this broad Vally on the dark hillside. Keep reading to learn something about that hillside.
Continue reading Southern Death Valley
This season I took advantage of the rare opportunity to photograph reflections of desert mountains in Death Valley. We were there just before Christmas 2025 and then again near the end of February 2026. The Lake Manly was there both times, though it had visibly diminished on the second visit. But from up close its surface still reflected the surrounding mountains and sky.
Continue reading Lake Manly, Morning Clouds, Reflection