We've got to give him more time...

I am now caught up on photo posts and posts that I couldn't get photos to upload, so scroll down to check them out and check the full album link in the left sidebar.

While on the subject, the album export I used from Aperture doesn't list all the album pages from the index, so you have to page through the album to see additional pages at the end, where the most recent pictures are.

Hoover Dam is big.

You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to Hoover Dam.

Hoover Dam is, like a giant rock, hard to photograph.  Ansel Adams photographed it from downstream, where mere mortals like myself would not be allowed today. 

So I had to work with what I could get from the dam and parking lots around it.  So I got a few shots I am happy with walking across the dam and back.

As I walked, I watched couples and families drive the dam with their windows down, taking pictures, or trying, in the 30 seconds that it takes to cross the dam.  From the dam in a car all you can really see is the canyon walls and the power lines.

When I am photographing something, I like to know it first or, to invoke Heinlein, to grok it.  This doesn't always work out; it is impossible to grok Death Valley in 4 days, but knowing something about the geography, geology, and ecology helps.  This is why photography projects take a long time for me.  I'm looking, or trying to look, at the truth of each facet of the thing.

It isn't possible to grok, or even to know Hoover Dam without walking it, seeing the inside of the dam, feeling the vibration of the turbines, or looking down the long face of the dam and imagining falling the 1244ft. to the bottom.  Can you really claim to have been to Hoover Dam if you've just ridden over it in a car and shot a picture of the canyon?  You certainly haven't experienced the dam, one of the most remarkable works of man in the last 100 years, and possibly of all time.

Where my nose ends and space begins.

Humans have been doing the road trip for a long time. A lot of American History can be described as a search. A search for the intangible which becomes a search for a place where we think this intangible exists, or can be made by our own hands. So we sail across the ocean in search of freedom from tyranny, we cross the plains in a wagon in search for our "destiny," across the continent on a train in search of progress, and to the stars in search of man's ultimate crown.

When I planned this trip, packed the Subie and set off for Death Valley, I didn't think I was in search of anything at all. But now I think, in the middle of America, I might be searching for something. Perhaps being on the road has stripped away preoccupations and distractions that were preventing this realization, or perhaps the nature of the road trip created the search in me.

I try to live with as few regrets as possible. Not that I am the skydiving, bull-running, Killamanjaro-climbing type, but that I have enough in my past to haunt me for more than a lifetime. One regret that I don't mind confessing is that I didn't do this until I had turned 30. I regret that at 18 I wasn't at a place in my life to pack a car and just drive places I hadn't been and stay there until I was ready to move on. I regret not drinking milkshakes in crappy roadside diners that are so unremarkable as to be special because they exist without being special. I regret not sharing a campfire with strangers.  I regret not stopping to talk on the trail.  I regret not searching for the intangible on a desert road that leads nowhere because it leads everywhere. I regret not driving across the country with someone I hardly know until we came to the place that we would always know each other.

I don't know what it is that I am searching for, but I do know that it isn't Nashville, or a job, or a better life or bigger car or a house. Pressed to it, I might be searching for the absence of all those things. But I don't know for sure now, and may not for some time; maybe this trip is far too short to find out.

There's something very weak coming through...

Either this roadside hotel internet or blogger is being freakstastically lame.

I am still trying to get some basic posting and image uploading done but have not been successful in 3 freaking hours.

Apologies for this, I'm going to get dinner and try again later.

Fire. F-F-F-Fire.

I'll warn you now, there are more shots of rocks in this post.  Rocks are hard to shoot 'cause, well, they're rocks.  And big rocks, like those you will see shortly are even harder.  It is really tough to communicate the grandeur of these formations with such a short visit.  There are more examples of most of these in the full resolution gallery linked in the sidebar.

What color is the giant rock formation in YOUR bedroom?

One of the things to see in Valley of Fire is Petroglyph Canyon.  There are lots of petroglyphs that have survived here from long lost cultures.

Formations in the sandstone, including Arch Rock, the Beehive, other details.

Be just like Mosaic Canyon back home.

The road to Mosaic Canyon was just 10 yards up the road from Stovepipe Campground. It's long uphill hike through huge slabs of polished marble framed with red rock cliffs. I started up Mosaic Canyon just after midday and went as far as I could without bouldering while wearing all my photo gear. In the 3 or so hours on the trail much of the canyon never saw full sun because the walls are so high.

Geological forces are still at work in Death Valley.  Some point in the recent past, this boulder rolled off a ledge some 20 feet above to rest in trail.

Details of marble and rock from Mosaic Canyon.

There are many more pictures from Mosaic Canyon in the full gallery, linked in the sidebar.

I'll return. I promise.

More posts and photos coming.  I was on the road for two days. I have internet now, but have spent most of my time trying to get high resolution pictures uploaded.

That shouldn't be hard, should it? 

Only an old ghost town..

When I left Death Valley, I took a slightly longer route out the valley to go through Ryolite, and gold boom and bust town from the early 1900's.

I've been to a few other ghost towns in the past, but they dated much earlier that Ryolite.  The construction in Ryolite isn't wood framed and sided structures like most towns built before 1900.  Most the remaining structures Ryolite are concrete construction, and the missing structures were prefab structures that the inhabitants packed out of town on wagons after the local gold stocks went bust.  The bottle house, however, is made of bottles.

The bank buildings were intact, including the vaults.

There was also an abandoned Union Pacific car in town.

For more, see the full album linked in the sidebar.

Play back the entire message!

This post is just to tell you to keep scrolling down 'cause I added several posts today.

Incidentally, this wouldn't be an issue if you were using an RSS Reader, which you should, so get one.  Mac users, I recommend Vienna or NetNewsWire.   Windows users, I recommend getting a Mac and using Vienna or NetNewsWire.

I don't see you crying, robot!

(The is the only Star Wars-less title for the day)

I feel like this is about to be the scene in the final episode of Arrested Development when the family finally sees Michael Bluth cry and are put off.

I find a significant serenity out here that I have hitherto found unmatched in any other type of vacation.

It is difficult to describe concisely, and I would say that I have not put enough thought to the matter to truly communicate it if I had the time, but I will say that I feel both more and less like myself here than I do anywhere else. Sitting in front of the fire after a full day exploring the natural wonders here and eating a simple but hot meal, I feel far different than I do most any other time.

I can't attribute it to the lack of responsibility that typifies vacations since I have many of the same stresses here that I have "at home" (rather than daily work stress I have the stress of securing a new job, rather than the stress of feeding and getting the kids to bed I have the stress of getting to camp before dark and preparing a meal before the temperature drops, rather than the stress of daily home tasks I have the burden of lost potential on a trip that I will truly only make once in my lifetime) so I don't really know what the cause is.

Perhaps it is the combination of the place and the solitude. It may be that this is what vacations - and I mean real vacations - are like for others and that this is the only kind of vacation that does this for me.

As I said in so many words, I cant truly explain the origin or effect. But I am grateful.

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany.

We must be cautious.

The picture you see below is the view from Dante's View (5475ft).  It is just Southeast of Badwater and a steep drive.  The last 1/4 mile of the drive is a 15% Grade.  I bring it to your particular attention because it is the view from which we first see Mos Eisley, the spaceport where Luke Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi find a smuggler who agrees to take them to Alderaan.  The valley floor has changed significantly from the film since it goes through typical natural processes (and it's been 30 years) but if you watch the film and look at the picture, you'll see it.

Where's not going to get another chance at this...

(Admiral).

So I've changed my plans.  I initially chose Zion as a destination because, well, everything else was far out of the way.  But I have decided that I like the desert more.  So while I would like to see Zion, on my limited time, I am going to shuffle things in favor of the desert.

First, I am going to stay in Deva tonight and head to Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada tomorrow, where I will probably stay only one night.  On the way, I will check out Ryolite and gold boom town which is now a ghost town.  This will take me through Vegas, so I might have to stop for a sweet all you can eat buffet and some cards.  Hmmmm.  Maybe that is how I will be able to afford my second camera body.

After a night in VoF I am going to cross the Hoover Dam for the second time in my life and drive to Holbrook AZ - the closest town to The Petrified Forest.  This will give me more time in the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.  I was initially planning on staying only 1 night here, which would mean less than half a day to visit and photograph.

From there, it's long driving days through the middle part of the country, but there is plenty of "Weird America" type stuff to see, so I might get some good shots of the Giant Cross in Texas, or the Woody Guthrie Statue (really).

What makes you think there will be settlements over there?

What is with all these Star Wars related titles anyway?  Well, gentle reader, many of the scenes on Tatooine (Luke Skywalker's home planet) were filmed here in Death Valley.  The dunes you are about to see are Stovepipe Dunes.  The desolate dunes C3-PO and R2-D2 are lost in after escaping from the captured Tantive IV are these very dunes.  They big'uns are about 1.5 miles from the road through loose desert sand. Once there, it took some hiking to find the shots I was looking for.  I don't know if you have hiked through this kind of sand before but it is exhausting.  It's hard to take a bad shot of these dunes if you show up for the sunrise (like I did).  After mid-morning the sun makes these (and any dunes) flat and bright.  But early morning and late in the afternoon, the contrast is great.  After the first shot of some bird footprints (most likely a Kildeer) there are just sundry shots of the dunes, including one featuring me.

Here is a little guy I found in the Visitors' Center parking lot.  Unfortunately he was pretty fearless, which means someone fed him.  So I got some good shots, but he'll probably be dead soon.  Wild animals that get fed by humans get used to seeing humans and then get sick from our food, hit by our cars, or become aggressive (in the case of feline and canis families) and are killed or put down.  So it was cool to see him, but overall, the story is bad.

These last shots are from Hell's Gate.  I went up at the end of the day to get some sidelighting of the valley hoping for some good color, but the haze in the valley defeated me.  Still you can see me again, and a shot looking down the southern end of the valley.

If there's a bright center to the universe...

Welcome to Day 1 in Death Valley.

(Please excuse the current lack of high resolution shots, internet here is slow so I may not get them all up for a while)

These first two shots are from the way into the park. The long road into the valley and the view from Crowley Point.

 

Started off by going to Badwater, the lowest point in the western hemisphere. There isn't much water here, but what little is here is, well, bad. The name was given when an early surveyor marked the small pools and his map with "Bad Water" after his mule wouldn't drink it. The water that forms the pool here can be runoff from the hills but mostly comes up through the ground picking up the mineral deposits as it comes. This is also the only known habitat of the Badwater Snail, who apparently doesn't mind the salt, but is too shy to be photographed. It is also endangered.

Next stop was Devil's Golf Course mostly because there is a sign pointing it out. The area consists of more salt and dirt, just taller formations than Badwater or the Salt Flats.  That is Telescope Peak in the background. It is the highest point in the park.  The drop from Telescope to Badwater is one of the biggest and steepest on the planet: from 11,048 feet to -282 feet.

After that I took Artist's Drive which doesn't photograph well in the morning and midday light. I may get back here in the evening for some shots. So then it was on to Zabriskie Point. Zabriskie is just above the Golden Canyon trailhead and overlooks the valley I was just in. I hiked out to the washes below the point and shot some pics. There isn't much water in Death Valley, but there is a lot of evidence of water and you can see in the runoffs, stratification in Zabriskie Point, and mud crusts.

I stopped and shot some roadside flowers as well. There ARE flowers in Death Valley. In the winter anyway.

Last shots, Stovepipe Dunes which I hiked this morning (exHAUSTing) and will have more for you later, the dusk sky in DeVa, and the homestead.