Tag Archives: panamint

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

Dust Storm, Desert Mountains

May 24, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A spring dust storm obscures the Panamint Mountains, Death Valley

This was a remarkable day in Death Valley, from dawn until dusk, though it was not entirely an easy day to be there. We began very early on a ridge high in the Panamint Mountains, where we went to photograph sunrise. This was not the iconic brilliantly colorful sunrise that one might hope for, but it was more remarkable in many ways. There was a milky translucence in the atmosphere produced by some combination of light and dust, the latter being the precursor to a huge dust storm that would envelop the area later in the day. Later in the morning we explored other remote areas of Panamints before eventually deciding that we would start back down into Death Valley, where we were staying.

While still high in the mountains we began to notice the telltale signs that dust storms were imminent. Brown streamers of dust began to appear high above us, unusual for this high in the mountains, and though we could not see the Valley we began to recognize what was happening. As we descended the dust thickened, and by the time we joined up with the main road into the Valley the dust was thick, obscuring even nearby mountains such as those in this photograph. We continued on, and before long the wind was howling and dust was everywhere. I’ve been in dust storms before, but I was surprised when for a brief moment the dust turned to sand and then tiny pebbles began to fall from the sky! We got back to our room and closed up doors and windows — but dust still streamed into the room through any slight crack. Hours later the wind abated and we went outside. There were still clouds of blowing dust, but we could see some breaks… and rain clouds moving in! Before long showers were passing through the dust storm, creating one of the most apocalyptic landscapes I’ve ever seen.

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

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.

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

Lenticular Clouds, Death Valley

May 2, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn lenticular clouds from above the Black Mountains and Death Valley

After a cold and windy final night camping in the Panamint Mountains of Death Valley National Park this spring, I woke up early and headed to an overlook along the summit ridge for the range before dawn. The most typical experience here is to watch the sun rise into clear skies above the desert landscape, but this time a weather system was approaching. It was cold, extremely windy, and the sky was filled with dark clouds. The only sunrise color I saw was along a distant band of light at the horizon, produced by clearer skies far to the southeast.

I had seen the giant lenticular cloud forming the previous afternoon. These clouds are almost a part of the landscape at times, arising in predictable locations and formed by interactions between the atmosphere and features such as mountain ridges. Unlike other clouds, the lenticular can remain almost stationary for long periods of time — but this is the first time I’ve awakened to see clouds from the previous day still there. The choice to use a monochrome interpretation allowed me greater interpretative latitude in the final image, and this let me draw attention to certain shapes mirrored by the clouds and the geology in the scene.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: panamint

Before The Dust Storm

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Panamint Valley and Mountains

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Lenticular Clouds, Death Valley

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

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