Death Valley Day 4

You have seen the trip details and photos from Day 3..

We did spend a 4th day at Death Valley as a grand finale of sorts.

Did the two hour drive from Ridgecrest early in the morning but with a lot of stops to take pictures on the way of the desert landscape and the valley views. We had reserved this activity for the last day as we rushed past these features every morning.

Then we went to the Badwater Basin! It was the farthest point for us on the last day at Death Valley and our plan was to cover as many spots as possible on our way back to Stovepipe wells.

The old chinese workers at the borax mines tried to make their horses drink the water that was collected in shallow pools but the horses or mules would not drink. So they called it badwater and the name stuck. 

In reality the water is so saturated with salt that it is not potable! Given that, it creates such scenic beauty as it leaves salt to dry in ring like sediments, after some point the salt crystals push out of the ground like seeds germinating and have crystalline patterns that literally emerge from the ground. The sun makes this all the more spectacular and the reflections of the mountains is some sight to behold.

After walking around Badwater we headed to another place that is so unique it is aptly named "Devils Golf Course".. Caked earth, salt deposits, sharp edges that make you worry that you will cut youself to death if you fall on the ground..

It was interesting to say the least. We went back for lunch at Furnace Creek visitor center again and started driving to something that promised guaranteed fun if the brochures were to be taken seriously...

We came to Natural bridges! It was a long walk and it ended at a point where we could not go further but we got some unforgettable memories on this trail. The sun cast shadows that turned the canyon from orange, to red to yellow to purple and the camera was clicking non stop.

At some point I just stopped clicking, sat on a rock, took a deep breath and absorbed the whole thing. Then packed up and started walking to catch up to San, BB and the kids. 

If and when I retire, soooo going back to this place to spend a day in the shade sitting on one of those rocks and watching the sun go by! 

After a reality check that retirement was far away, we drove to Artist Point or Artist Pallette as people call it. The rocks and the minerals within them have been exposed by water erosion and the mountains are glowing in colors! We saw a shade of this at Zabriske point on Day 3, but this was way more colorful. Almost spent two hours on this drive at various vista points. The moon comes out close to 2PM and we had some fun taking photographs with the moon in the background!

The sad thing is that the best views are closer to the exit on this drive than on the entrance side. We spent way too much time climbing a little hill where everyone had parked their car only to realize that the really colorful spots were further down the drive! Still, made it through just as the sun set and we came out of the park with some great memories..

Day 5 saw us driving back from Ridgecrest.. We stopped on the way at a few scenic spots .. a lake, a river.. Those pictures are processed as are all those stitch shot panoramas. Will post the last photoblog from Death Valley trip tomorrow!

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.

A photograph can only do so much justice..

It was a great idea to go work today instead of doze off at home. No pills, visited the hot room and now feeling a lot better. 

So the thought of visiting those 3000 odd photos from last week came to mind. 

After spending 2 hours on just 6 photos calling it a night.

At the end of the day a photograph even if done in Photorealistic HDR doesn't recapture the wonder of Death Valley!

This one photo below is of the Ubehebe crater. This is a composite of 7 shots stiched together. The individual shots were taken at 17mm in portrait format on a Canon 17-40mm L lens using a ND filter in manual mode with manual focus, then cropped and adjusted. I tried pulling the whole thing off with auto exposure bracketed shots in HDR and that did not work. Guess even my Mac quits at some point..

Sure there are not that many pictures like this of Ubehebe out there. We are on a rim of a crater which is around 100 feet! you get a feel for the size of this by looking at the people on the right edge.

The ND filter kit was part of the birthday present specially for this trip. Made a big mistake. Like a person who wears spectacles for the first time forgeting the specs at odd places, I left the ND filter kit on the crater rim. 

If you happen to read this blog and fate has it that you were on that crater rim between 11/21 or thereafter and you happen to have found it.. please email me.. 

Was almost in tears when we realized this at our next stop later that evening. By that time we had already driven a good 60 miles away from the crater and visiting it again in hopes of recovering filter kit was moot!

There were few good shots with the filter in the 24 hours of use like this sunset over the freeway. We didn't realize the sun sets before 4:30 in death valley! A lot earlier than the previous day when we were out of the valley. The valley is below sea level and the lowest point in the US is right here.. should have expected that!

or this one from Mosaic canyon..

These two photos en-route to Darwin falls at Panamint area..

and finally a butterfly that was everywhere in the desert.. they were even there in the salt flats. Don't know how they survive the harsh environment. 

Learned one more thing in the editing process. The canon photo stitch utility does not work on photos taken at 17mm! So figured out how to stitch them in Photoshop. Starting to really love Photoshop now. For all that Adobe hating because of Flash Player.. there is a new found love for Adobe because of CS5!

More photos tomorrow...