Death Valley: Ubehebe Crater and Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

I'm not very proud of these photos, but I do want you to see the things I saw, so they'll have to do. After Scotty's Castle we made a couple of stops...


There is actually a series of craters here, but we just looked at the largest one. The hike to the others was going to be too difficult, especially at this point when we'd been walking around all day.


My parents at the edge.


Speaking of the edge...a sign depicting my fear!




That speck on the left is my dad!




The sand here was kind of a charcoal color.






I told you I photographed these bushes a lot.


Okay, next stop: sand dunes! I was really looking forward to taking pictures of this classic desert scene, and was disappointed to find that the good photo-worthy dunes were soooo far out. We didn't have the time or energy to hike through sand for an hour, so I just had to make the best of what I could get to.


Here's a little panoramic view of some of the dunes. When clouds cast shadows on them, some would look almost black. It was so weird, like they had actually changed color vs. a shadow making them dark. Click the image for a larger version where you can better see what I mean.


More salt.


I'm not sure if I mentioned that it was too early for many flowers, so any sighting was worth photographing. :)




Sorry, I wouldn't typically tease people in public, but hopefully they won't ever know about my blog. I just found it amusing how this guy was posing his girlfriend for sand dune photos. I didn't take the photo of them on purpose, I just realized after taking it that they were in the frame, so I cropped it closer for you. I'm nice!




My parents.



Okay, I think I have just one more set of DV photos coming later this week. :) Thanks for all of your nice comments about the previous ones!

Death Valley: Scotty's Castle

On Monday we visited Scotty's Castle. My dad had been years ago and thought we'd like it. I loved the style and took a ton of photos, so bear with me! Many aren't great quality, but I wanted to post them here anyway.


The name of the house is actually Death Valley Ranch, but they call it Scotty's Castle now due to the story behind it. Short version: a rich man (and his wife) moved to the desert (in the 1920s, I think) for health reasons and built this house. Scotty was actually a con man who ended up becoming friends with the rich guy (Albert Johnson?) and staying at and near the castle (with his expenses paid by Johnson). Johnson didn't want the fame that went with being the owner of this place, so he and his wife let Scotty lead people to believe it was his, and visitors would come and listen to Scotty's (untrue) stories about it.

You can see from the photos that the house is in a Spanish/mission style, which is a look I love--it makes me feel all vacationy. There's a spring on this property that supplies way more water than necessary, so there are trees and the lot is like an oasis. You hardly remember you're in the desert! I really liked it.


Some of the exterior.





Those tiles on the bottom left are all stacked up in the basement. They were for the swimming pool which was never completed. I'm not sure why they don't sell them or something--they're really neat and just sitting there!


More of the tiles and some other details inside the house. They appreciated fine craftmanship and tried to incorporate some pieces they saw on travels around the world.


The top left is our tour guide, dressed in period clothing. Top right is an old car that belonged to the owner and is still parked in the garage.




There was a pipe organ in part of the house, and at the end of the tour the guide turns on the automatic piano and organ that do a duet. It was really fun! She's standing in front of where the organ music comes out in that top right photo.


For some reason I wanted to take a million photos of this spiral staircase. It's photogenic! My parents and I were also admiring the tile floor--how all the random pieces fit together so nicely.


I'm sad this photo is overexposed, because it's one of my favorites. It was very dark inside the house and I had my settings all wrong when we briefly went outside again.

Okay, that's enough. :) Have any of you been here?

Death Valley: Dantes View

Sunday evening we drove up to Dantes View to watch the sunset. The sunset wasn't all that spectacular, but the view was awesome. Of course, these photos don't exactly capture it all that well.






Those are my parents walking down one of the paths. I'm not really afraid of heights, but I am paranoid when people are near edges and in seemingly dangerous situations, so I was a little jumpy up here. Sometimes an edge is not as steep as it appears from a distance, so my dad would be safe but I'd be telling him to move from the edge and having to walk away so I'd be less freaked. :P What if there was loose gravel? You never know!

[I was the same way at the edge of a crater we visited later, and also when our older tour guide was standing at the very edge of a staircase, telling us how they've had to life-flight people out of there for injuries. My mom and I couldn't even look at him! MOVE AWAY FROM THE EDGE OF THE STEP, MAN! Does anyone else have this problem?]




This is what I meant about the salt looking like lakes from a distance. Don't the white patches seem like water of some sort?


Desert plants.


I'm way more comfortable (and equipped) photographing small plants than large views/landscapes.




Looking down at the road that took us up to this point.




The moon was pretty cute that night when we got back to our campsite.

Death Valley: Devils Golf Course, Badwater Basin, Artist's Palette

I'm back for part two of Desert Photo Bombardment 2011. We did a lot on Sunday, and this post doesn't even finish it.


Don't ask me why there is no apostrophe in Devils...I guess it's just plural? Who comes up with these names, anyway? This is basically an area of salty mud that ends up looking like the surface of some other planet.


My dad walking on the mud lumps.


Here's a closer look. My parents and I tasted the salt. Guess what--it tasted salty!




Next stop: the lowest point in the western hemisphere. More salt! It looked like snow and felt kind of squishy as we walked on it.


They cleverly hung a sign up on the nearby cliff to show where sea level was compared to where we stood. And to your right: my parents on the salt.


From a distance this looks just like water. Not in this photo, though.


More of the salt crystals.


I was pleasantly surprised by this next point of interest. There's a one-way street called Artist's Drive that takes you through some cool rocks, and then to one particular multi-colored scene called Artist's Palette. It was neat!


Some of the different colors.




I'm not sure we ever figured out what the green was.




Are you bored?




I couldn't decide what to show you, so I probably have too many photos here.


Kind of a dark burgundy on our way out.

More to come! :)