Death Valley & Yosemite National Parks
It was time for another trip to California. So much to explore and such a varied state! This was my third trip to Death Valley National Park in the last 3 years and it was probably my most productive trip so far. As I approached Death Valley while driving from Las Vegas, one thing that was a little different this time was the amount of snow on the mountains.
A winter storm brought widespread rain to California and a blanket of snow to elevations above 4,000 feet nearly a couple of weeks before my arrival. Snow still remained on the mountains and as well as some puddles of water in the lowest basins.
This time I joined David Kingham and Jennifer Renwick. They are a nice couple to hang out with and great hosts for their photography outings. This was their "Extreme Death Valley" trip, which involved more walking than most photography tours. One day involved a total of 9 miles of walking! There was camping each night, some in very remote locations where we were by ourselves. Our first night was near Ibex Dunes, one of the more remote sand dunes of the park. Even thought the light and sky were not that great, the dunes were peaceful in part because we were only ones there. Well, except for this beetle. It turns out that you can see life in the sand dunes.
Bigger sand dunes were to come at Eureka Dunes, which are the tallest dunes in California and the second tallest in North America. Here, the light on the dunes and colors in the sky were better. This might be my favorite place in the park. We also visited the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, where several movies have been filmed, including "Star Wars".
At first glance, the desert seems desolate and static. However, it is an ever-changing environment that depends on the winds that blow and the rains that fall. The shifting sands make for new scenes each visit to the same place. Cycles of droughts and floods can alter the landscape here, too. Recent winter storms have brought rains to Badwater Basin. The site itself consists of a small spring-fed pool of "bad water" and accumulated salts of the surrounding basin make it undrinkable, thus giving it the name. After rain collects on the salt deposits, repeated freeze–thaw and evaporation cycles gradually push the thin salt crust into polygonal honeycomb shapes.
At Death Valley, even the mud can be beautiful. These were the deepest mud cracks that I have ever seen. Some cracks were even as deep as a few inches...so deep that I was worried about dropping my lens cap into them! Thanks to David for scouting these locations that contained the fantastic polygons and mud cracks before I arrived!
Now on to Yosemite...
You have probably heard in the news that California has been receiving a lot rain this winter with higher elevation snow. This was very evident as I drove up the Merced River Valley leading up to Yosemite National Park. The river was swift and higher than it would be normally. Numerous waterfalls were pouring off the side drainages. Before I even entered in the park, I could tell that I would be seeing Yosemite in rare form.
I joined up with Gary Hart, who led our 4-day photography workshop. Gary has been coming to Yosemite since the 70's and told us that he was seeing waterfalls where he had never seen them before. A special treat for us was that the waterfalls that are usually there were flowing in their full glory. On the left is the base of Bridal Veil Falls and the right picture is Yosemite Falls.
The wet conditions this winter not only made for great waterfall pictures, but also created water in places that usually aren't filled with water. With the Merced River recently flooding, some fields had standing water that would normally be just grass and dirt. These field conditions made for great reflections of Half Dome.
The weather was completely overcast for my first 3 days in Yosemite, with about 24 hours of almost non-stop rain. On the final day, the sun was shining all day and the air was still which made for great reflections as you can see. With the flooded fields in the valley, it created for this especially unique picture of Yosemite Falls (complete with a rainbow!) from Cooks Meadow as well as river reflection of the rock formation known as El Capitan.
With the waterfalls flowing and the sky now clear, it made for a good evening to see the "firefall" known as Horsetail Falls. It is a stream of water pouring off the side of El Capitan. For about 2 weeks in February, the last light of the day shines directly on the waterfall. If the sky is clear on the western horizon at sunset, you can see the color of the waterfall evolve from golden to red before the sun completely sets. Although I was there on February 11th, this phenomenon peaks around the 3rd week of February. Even though I was there a little before the peak, I was fortunate to be there on an evening when the sky was perfectly clear.
