This is the last post in this Death Valley photo log. After the short hike at Mosaic Canyon, it began to rain pretty decently, so we headed back to Furnace Creek.
Did you think that you’d get through this series of photos without an airplane? Hah! Here’s a Piper PA-11 Cub Special, reg. N78659, a the Furnace Creek Airport L06:
At Furnace Creek, you can witness the ants of Great-tailed Grackles. Never seen these loudmouth birds before:
Furnace Creek, which is well irrigated with a golf course, has rabbits:
A Say’s Phoebe. A new to us bird, just off Airport Road there’s a path to a bird watching platform overlooking a pond at the Furnace Creek Golf Course:
The sun managed to shine just a bit on some distant mountains. I was thankful I had my telephoto lens:
Sometimes you get unexpectedly striking photos on random road next to an abandoned lot..:
And that was the end of the trip. I’ll forego posting about the trip back home, since pretty much only the Clown Motel was worth posting about. But if you come to or leave Death Valley via Beatty, Nevada, I do recommend a stop by EddieWorld for unique candy (and so much more). Thanks for sticking it out!
The next day we drove up to Ubehebe Crater. This northern part of the park was painted yellow in Desert Sunflowers bloom:
There were other flowers too, like this striking Notch-leaved phacelia:
And some Browneyes or Browneyed Primrose (Chylismia claviformis):
The volcanic Ubehebe Crater with person (me) for scale. My wife shot with a Fujifilm X100V camera using a film simulation that’s similar to Kodachrome 64:
Here’s what I was gazing at through my Fujifilm X-T5 using the more saturated Velvia film simulation to really make the colors pop:
Here’s the volcanic crater from the top at the north side:
And at the same place, a nice vista of the surrounding northern-most part of Death Valley:
We headed back south, so we took an opportunity to pull over to gaze at some incredible mountains:
Uh-oh. A collection of shoes. What could this mean‽:
The Mesquite Sand Dunes. Clearly, the dunes are famous for gladly taking shoes and socks that people remove and forget (‽) about. Kind people must collect them hoping that the footwear will be reunited with their owners (or someone desperate for footwear):
The one-way driving loop for “Artist’s Palette” show-cases up-close Death Valley’s colorful, and VERY faulted geology (holy cow! look for the dissimilarly colored rock abutting each other):
Lots of volcanic rocks of varying colors at this overlook:
Very near from the above view, a bit to the south, and there’s another stunning landscape heavily dissected by canyons. The sun briefly peaked through the clouds:
Meanwhile, at Death Valley to the west of us… still pretty dusty but also sun-kissed. Time to leave this cloud provided shade for a little more sun!:
Back on the road to another part of Death Valley:
Zabriskie Point. It’s easy to see why this is a popular place. It’s just ridiculously photogenic. Apparently this area used to be mined for Borax, but I couldn’t discern signs of that:
Turn your head from the south and to the west, and suddenly steeply dipping rock and red bluffs named Red Cathedral…:
The day concluded, we went back to Furnace Creek — the dark green spot on the left. On the right, the palms are on the property of a fancy looking resort:
Stay tuned for Part 5, which may be the last in the series. See Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 3 or Part 5
Here’s an actual Stove-Pipe Well and its historical marker. Visitors have apparently placed glass fragments and pretty rocks along its ledges:
While we were there we had a crow beg us for food (you may have seen this posted earlier):
We then headed south toward Badwater. We were hoping to visit the Salt Creek Boardwalk for potential pupfish sightings, but it was destroyed by floods. Instead first visited Mustard Canyon near the Borax Works:
We continued driving south toward Badwater, where the rare and quickly vanishing lake still laps ancient shorelines! For some reason people were wading in the lake at the Badwater Basin trail area:
Here’s a closer view of the shallow lake near Badwater Basin. We’re not sure what is creating the green tinge. Something is reflecting green somewhere in the lake’s water or lake bed.
And even closer:
Needless to say, Devils Golf Course was quite underwater. But you can still see some interesting mineralization along the shore:
Of course, we had to take a video of the lake:
Okay. We did more that day but this seems like a good place to dock for the night. I’ll leave it at that!
Woodpecker granaries are really neat. This one was right on a trail at Pinnacles NP. We did see an acorn woodpecker nearby though the photo isn’t great.
Last weekend: just a taste of the views you can have at Pinnacles National Park, California, if you take the the High Peaks Trail. #PinnaclesNationalPark #Fujifilm #GeologyMakesThePhoto
Last weekend: in its most happiest habitat, predominantly here are Yellow Monkeyflowers within massive rocks at Pinnacles National Park, California. #MonkeyFlowers #PinnaclesNationalPark
Here’s me on the Snyder Creek trail gazing at the talus field, but still wanting to be out of there (rockfall is the reason for this talus). This is pretty near the end of the trail where there’s a camping area and a paternoster(?) lake, Snyder Lake.
Back in September we visited Glacier National Park. We didn't take the Going to the Sun Road, but opted for the lesser traveled Snyder Creek trail. Here's a couple of fuzzy caterpillars taken with a Fujifilm X100V.
With insanity at European airports I’m thankful our early June trip to Germany was nearly flawless. We 😷managed to not get Corona (we tested ourselves before leaving though the US lifted that requirement while we were there). Almost 4 years of planning! Photo is Frankfurt Intl
Here’s a collection of sea turtle parts while on Maui earlier this month. I made ample use of the X100V’s continuous shooting mode, getting several hundred photos and out of those only about six with clearly identifiable turtle parts. They’re amazing creatures and I can spend hours watching them from a distance that won’t stress them out.
You will likely need to tap on a photo to zoom in to see details of the turtle part(s) :-)
Turtle fin:
Head of a turtle:
Another head:
Yet another head with perhaps an exposed shell below and left of the head:
