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.

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.

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.

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.