Death Valley Day 3

Somewhere in the last ten days the daily one hour commit to photo editing before going to bed took a backseat on the priority list. Got a break yesterday evening when it was cold and raining out and the kids and me ended playing "name place animals things" at home.

We also started on a 500 piece puzzle which was messed up by the little one after we had almost assembled 50 plus pieces to connect because she got "fursrated".. she almost says it like "firstrated"! We might start that again as long as no pieces were damaged. 

Managed to edit Day 3 photos. Two more days of photos to edit still left!

For previous photos and trip description go here..

Day 3 saw us going straight to the Kilns through the Wildrose entrance of Death Valley national park. These are some magnificent structures built hundreds of years ago to make charcoal from local wood. They must be easily 25+ feet tall as the entrance is close to 6 feet. You end up driving through a dirt road and it is better if you have a Jeep. We were all praying that no big rocks hit our vehicle as it is pretty desolate out there and there are no cell signals.

After the Kilns we headed straight to see the salt creek. There is a nice wood path (that reminded us of the Petroglyph trail in Hawaii)  and you can walk it in 30 minutes or less and you can see the creek run by, small fish, birds if you are lucky and a lot of butterflies.. not to mention the vast expanse of salts.

We continued in the same direction and went to the Borax works next. Borax was the main thing folks mined from the salts. So they figured out it was easier to refine the borax locally and haul it in mule wagons instead of taking raw material across the desert.

Now of course all this is gone because there are deposits outside death valley that are thriving and have more elaborate mines. At some point there were thousands of tents on the vast expanse in front of this wagon exhibit that sits in the middle of nowhere.. mostly Chinese migrant workers!

After this the plan was to go to Golden Canyon. We saw a coyote that we almost ran over as it crossed the road! There was no one else on that road and why it chose to cross just in front of us is beyond me.

We went for a hike through Golden Canyon as far as we could go which was a mile and a quarter. San and the girls decided to stop halfway and return while the two and a half men went on! The sun was almost directly over us and the previous experiences of walking in a shade within the canyon were not applicable. 

There were no clouds either. So the sky was a nice plain blue but the photos came out with "something missing"!

After this it was a drive back to Furnace creek visitor center for lunch. There is an auditorium there that plays a video of what to see at Death Valley at regular intervals. We caught that video and spent some time looking at the nice displays in the Visitor center. After that it was  a race with the sun to go see Dante's View and Zabriske point right before sunset.

We saw some of the most fantastic views ever at these two places. You can see the highest and lowest point in the continental US from this place on a clear day and we had a clear day! What you see below is an expanse of salt called the Badwater Basin. 

The sun was going down sooo fast! We caught some amazing hues on the rocks..

Unforgettable views!

Wanted to stay there for a long time just to admire what mother nature had created over millions of years, but the 20 odd cars that were there started dispersing fast and it got dark very fast and we started down from Zabriske point..

We had one more day at the park to cover some more must see spots.. It only got better on the last day!

Day 2 at Death Valley

On day 1 we had covered Panamint area (Darwin falls, Panamint Valley road) and had headed to Stovepipe wells to see Mosaic Canyon just at Sunset and turned back.

Day 2 saw us heading straight to Scotty's Castle. A real Spanish Castle built in the middle of the desert during the gold rush years. A gold rush triggered by a fraud Scotty!

You can go read about it here.. 

They continue his conman tradition by collecting tickets at the door and then telling you "No backpacks, no Tripods as we cannot let anything tip over in the castle". They also have strict rules on where you can walk in the castle and have the original expensive rugs from the 1920's covered in plastic. 

So it was a challenge taking photos inside.. and Balaji told me "Imagine if you could do this in HDR!".. so I did try this with some high ISO settings and used a gun hold to steady myself on the ground for every exposure bracketed series of shots while the tour guide and the rest of the gang would wait for me. The guide did not want to leave me out of her sight and I was a royal pain for her... but hey, didnt pay those bucks for the entrance if we were not going to get pictures, right?!

Here are some photos from the Castle trip. The rest are in the Galleries either under HDR or under Architecture..

Inside the castle it was pretty dark and so you can imagine trying to get shots with 1/60 as the over exposed setting with as large an f-stop as possible to capture @17mm!

and finally my favorite. BB had the idea to take this shot and had set up the kids and there were all about to walk out of the building! The guide lady was pushing me to finish my last shots inside the building as she wanted to lock up the castle behind me (it was Thanksgiving day and we were pretty much the only group there!) and that is when I saw the kids still staring up.. Had to photoshop BB and the tour lady's feet from the staircase but it was worth the time..

After Scotty's we went to Ubehebe crater  which was a visual treat. Took a lot of shots to do stitch work. 

Here is a sample ..

This is made from nine 30 MP images taken with the camera in Portrait orientation and merged in Photoshop where my shadow was cropped out..

Previous example (already in earlier post) is this one..

Then we went to Titus canyon and went on a trail outside the canyon by mistake. After going a mile with no shade in sight we came back and realized our mistake. Then decided to go in for a short hike in the right direction and took pictures. It was late by then.

So we cut it short and had lunch at Stovepipe Wells store which is great because there is a nice store, gas station and an area in the shade where you can eat your home cooked food and nice restrooms. What more can you ask for in the middle of the desert next to a bunch of sand dunes?

After lunch we went to the dunes. It was already 3 PM by then. The kids, having got their energy back raced into the Mesquite dunes and had the time of their life! Even today they tell us that the best part of the trip was playing in the dunes.. We need to find some dunes closer to home.

Another interesting thing about death valley. At 3PM it will be 76 F. By 4:15 it will drop to 70 and by 5:30 it will drop to 52 F. It drops rapidly in a 2 hour span.  We learned our lesson on day one and started wearing full sleeve shirts for the rest of the trip to avoid sun burn and the chills!

We thought of catching the sunset at some view point on the way back.. but my birthday dinner at Denny's could not be postponed and off we went on our long ride back to civilization.

The travelog will continue..

Day by day breakdown

The only way in my head to describe the Death valley National Park trip in pictures is to go day by day. Have finally finished processing all pictures from Day 1, uploaded the people pictures to Facebook to make the Mrs. and kids happy (they sit together at bedtime and surf facebook and this seems) and now uploading the nature stuff here. 

It does not make sense to visit death valley for a day or two. When Balaji told me we needed to take an extra day off for this plan, was initially not for it. We have never done a national park trip for more than 3 days. Then we did the internet learning and figured that 4 days in the park might just about cut it. 

It did not! We still missed a few spots after spending four full days in the park. That means the the next time we go, it has to be either :

- Rent and RV and stay inside the park or

- Stay at the one or two lodges inside the park and book it months in advance so we get a spot

We drove to a place called Ridgecrest after an 8 hour journey and rested that night. The next day (Day 1) we started at 8AM thinking that we will have time till 6PM to see things. The sun set at 4:15! We did course correct for this the rest of the trip. 

We went first to the Panamint area. There is a small store/ Visitor center with very helpful people and a very clean restroom there. You can also pickup things like moisturizers, sunscreen lotions etc.. there if you run out. 

There are beautiful views as you drive to this area

When you have a ND filter and you can do HDR.. you can almost.. almost make it look like what your eye sees.. but still it is only "almost". The human eye is the most amazing wide angle HD HDR ready thing and we usually do not realize it!

You keep walking through parched ground for a long time and 

then suddenly Darwin Falls!!!

We went on a dirt road for about a 2 1/2 miles and then went on a hike that definitely was more than a mile to see Darwin Falls ! There was lots of water flowing, considering we were in the middle of the desert and it was nice because we walked on the shade of the rock face. You are better off driving there in a Jeep or SUV instead of a minivan as your vehicle has to go real slow if it has low clearance! We did 10-15 miles / hour speeds throughout on dirt roads. 

It was really worth the effort as we got great photo ops on the way and at Darwin falls. Then we came back to the Store and had lunch.

Here is one with my two little bear cubs in a little cave! 

For comparision see bearcubs from Yellowstone many years ago..

It was already close to 1PM when we started lunch and we left the Panamint area by 2PM to go to Stovepipe Wells area.

That is almost an hours drive and we registered there at the Ranger station. That is when we were told "Sunset in an hour!". So off we went to Mosaic canyon which was the closest thing to see from the Ranger station. 

It was another 1/2 mile hike inside a canyon with smooth polished walls of marble and rocks of many colors and given that the sun was going down, it was like being in the Mckennas Gold movie! 

We have seen many canyons, but nothing like this! The kids could slide off some marble slopes.  We came out of Mosaic canyon and the sun had gone down but it was still bright out.

Started driving out of the park at 4:30 and it took us a good 2 hours plus to get back to Ridgecrest and got some fantastic views..The next day we started early amid protests from the kids! "This is a vacation, why do we have to wake up at 6 every day ?! Not fair" etc. etc. 

Wake up at 6 we did.. will share pictures from Day 2 in a few days.

More on the mystery of how women choose men?

If you have been reading this blog long enough... posted "this" way back in 2007. Little has changed except said Ferrari is now married and we dont see too many photos of his wife in white salwars.. that is a sidebar discussion.

Back to the main theme.. do women choose men because they resemble some early version of their dad.. A version they have of their dad when they were toddlers and consider that the "best possible version of a guy"?

The research is still ongoing. This morning, I went to pick up FIL who arrived from India at SFO. It was hilarious to see him walk out in the same shirt I was wearing. So had to take this picture after coming home!

Yes, my shirt is faded thanks to all the chemicals in the Cupertino water and his shirt still retained a lot of the original color.. but we look like two people who could have played Benjamin Button!

His memory is not that good now. We both got the shirts gifted by my co-brothers dad in Australia a good 8 years ago. It is absolutely cozy and is one of my favorite airplane and rainy day shirts. Apparently FIL likes it for the same reason!

This is scary ladies!

A busy day in the life of Jr.

It was a case of bad planning. Daddy committing to take Jr. to a parade in Los Gatos with the school band without knowing that her dance school annual day program was on the same day!

She insisted on going to the parade inspite of the rain. Really didn't want to take a chance with the rain and get sick again, but you cannot deny a 10 year old when she begs. So off we went, and got wet in the rain and I had the added pleasure of walking back a mile and a half with a camera and saxophone hanging from my neck!

She thought it was worth it!

 This position of neck down and playing an alto-sax within a poncho had consequences for the second part of the day..

 The place was colorful and it was nice for folks who were sitting in shelter watching the parade.. not so for the kids or parents running alongside taking pictures!

 Came back home and had exactly one hour to get ready for her dance performance. We had a lot of help in the dressing up from our family friend and the end result was ?

Daddy tearing up seeing Jr. all grown up. This is the first time she is wearing the traditional dance dress instead of a paavaadai!

Had to rotate the picture by 15 degrees to make her look straight. She could not hold her neck straight..

She looked great. Just had to dance well..

She did all the steps well. The hands were good. The feet did their job, but...

She went through the motions. There was simply no smile. Even hindi movie heroines who are forced to dance in front of villains before the climax have better smiles than Jr.'s and that got her to face mommy's wrath for a good hour!

and daddy's advice session as well.. Daddy learnt early on in his ballroom dancing days that even if you falter with your footwork, a smile goes a long way with the judges! Granted this was not a competition and there were no judges but when your parents and extended family get to watch it in photos and video... there has to be a smile!

Next year, there will be a calendar system in the house that avoids such conflicts and doesn't push the kids to such extremes.. 

and we will have a smile before, at and after the performance! 

Sometimes I think we push our kids too much but then again, we got a lot more excercise compared to Jr. and the little one because we played outdoors all the time instead of sit in front of an iPad.

All said and done.. she did break our heart being sooo cute.