December 2018 Adventure - Alabama Hills and Death Valley

Heading down to Death Valley for our December 2018 Adventure was Ann’s idea, and what a good idea it was!  Ann had been working her butt off at work and really needed a good break.  Given that Christmas was on a Tuesday, her office was shut down for Christmas Eve, and Ann had her usual Friday off, that meant we could maximize a longer trip and get a whole week off while only using two vacation days.  Even then we couldn’t help ourselves and left after work on Tuesday to head out of town.

I’d scouted out a campground in the Modoc National Forest near Canby, Ca, about half way between Klamath Falls and Susanville.  It was a fairly new campground, no real amenities and just off the road, meaning it didn’t require a lot of extra driving to get to.  Unfortunately, the Modoc NF website had not indicated that it had closed for the season.  Thankfully, I’d also scouted out forest service roads in the area and a short while after cursing at the closed, locked gate at the campground entrance, we were setting up for bed for the night.  (OK, I left out the fact that we (read: I) made a 4WD excursion into a mud bog - trying to get to another spot we could see - that almost halted Beast in her tracks.  Which meant I would have had to go out and dig us out of the mud, in the dark, while it was raining.  Thanks Beast - you’re the best.)

We were up nice and early the next morning, and after brewing a pot of coffee, on our way to breakfast in Susanville, and then the long drive south to Lone Pine and the Alabama Hills.  The drive was beautiful and Ann and I were thrilled at being on the road again.  

It was late afternoon by the time we arrived in Lone Pine, so we headed right out to the hills, both to look for photographs and to try and find a campsite.  It was at this point that, for all the planning I had done for the Death Valley part of the trip, it dawned on me that I’d forgotten to give much thought to where in the Alabama Hills we wanted to go.  So we wound up heading down a couple of trails that produced neither images nor a good place to spend the night.  As the sun was quickly lowering on the horizon, we decided to check an area where we stayed before - we’d at least have a place to spend the night, and a few photographs to make before the sun set.

We settled on the same spot we found on a previous trip, with the advantage of elevation looking around much of the area, and without the tent (and camper) on an uphill area where we could now explore.  So we quickly grabbed our gear and headed up take hill.  From there, the views towards the Sierra (I learned from my recent study of Ansel’s work that it is not the Sierras; Sierra is plural) were spectacular.  

And the rock outcropping at the top of the hill had its own images to offer. 

And quickly the sun set, which gave us lovely pink skies with the rising moon.

We made an easy dinner and got to bed early.

The next morning was its own adventure.  We decided that we didn’t want to photograph from the campsite area the following morning, given that we’d photographed from the same rock outcropping our previous stay, but we wanted a view of the mountains more from the south of our location.  That meant driving around in the dark.  I have a “map” of the area, though it is not a topographical map, and I thought I knew which roads were which (Of course I’d never get confused about which off-road trail we’d taken three years ago, the first time we came here).  Again, I have Beast to thank for bailing me out.  I first headed down a serious ATV trail that turned a bend and up a hill where, let’s just say Beast wouldn’t fit.  So I had to back-up (in the dark of course), about 100 feet to an area where I could turn around.  Looking at the map I figured I just forgot to take an earlier turn, so I go back.  Then that route quickly goes up and over . . . well, not quite over a steep hill because when I couldn’t see where the other side led, I stopped - and backed down a hill, stopping before a well-rutted turn, where I managed to turn around.  Time to start all over again, which meant going back to pavement.  

I wound up taking another turn off, a bit further west and we decided to immediately stop when we realized we were at a lovely location with a bowl of rocks and different views in a lot of directions.  It was still pretty dark, but we could see that the distant mountains were just starting to get some pre-dawn glow.  So I set my camera framing for the sky and mountains, unable to tell what was in the foreground (other than rocks) only to find . . .

. . . telephone poles.  Lovely shot, but for the poles!  And no, I never considered Photoshopping the poles out of the picture.

What followed was a lovely, ever-changing morning.  And since there were clouds in the sky, that meant opportunities for color, which I took full advantage of.  Much like the previous evening’s photographs, I wanted to make an image that gave not only the feeling of the incredible skies, but also of the character of the Alabama Hills.  

And as I was photographing a wall of rocks, I realized that the sun’s reflections were working their way down the wall, so I waited until it separated the upper parts from the lower parts.  Believe me, the photograph of the wall before the glow hit it is muchness interesting.

And then the sun popped over the horizon and blasted everything in light.  Given that we were in a geographically complex location, that meant strange shadows and blaring light criss-crossed every conceivable image.  It was time to go.  We had our photographs, we were frozen and we were hungry.  Time for breakfast at the Lone Pine Cafe!

I’d scouted out an off-road trail in the western part of Death Valley that leads to a place called Lee Flat.  I was interested in it because, of all things, it has fields and fields of Joshua Trees (yes, we put on U2’s Joshua Tree album while we drove through and photographed there). 

We thought Joshua Tree NP had Joshua Trees, but this place was amazing - miles and miles of them.  I’d found a half-loop route we could take that took us off-road at one point of the main road and dropped us off several miles down road, after doing a 20+ mile loop.  We took our time enjoying a nice, though occasionally bumpy, ride and stopping to photograph whenever something truly caught our eye.  

The next stop was Rainbow Canyon where we had fun photographing the aircraft fly-bys.  I won’t show any of those images (just check out the last post), but I will show you the landscape image of the Panamint Valley I made from the end of the canyon.

Given we spent a few hours at Rainbow Canyon waiting for the fighter jets, we arrived at our campsite fairly late in the afternoon.  We checked in and then headed over to the Visitor’s Center to check out if the government was going to shut down and to get some tips about where to go/opinions on our rough itinerary.  We did get some tips that we would use, particularly the quicker route to where we were planning to go after our campsite reservations were done.

The next morning found us in Badwater.  Ann and I hiked about a mile out onto the salt flats to do our pre-dawn thing.  It is strange to walk out there and be in this seeming alien world with nothing but salt formations all around. 

It was fairly heavily overcast, so we didn’t get much of that pre-dawn richness of color, but that doesn’t mean photographs weren’t being offered. 

And, of course, when I’m at a loss of where to point my camera, I inevitably look down at my feet. 

Eventually the sun started rising enough to give some differentiation in colors, though it never quite broke through the clouds in the east to light up the clouds to the west.  Still, the salt did pick up some of the sun’s reflected glow.

I’ve always found photographs from this place to be a bit disorienting, because I never had a clue as to the size of the geometric salt formations.  Here’s an iPhone image of Ann to show you that they’re a heck of a lot larger than I thought they were.  And the salt ridges are an inch or so high, so if you don’t lift your feet, you will trip.  Also, if you think it looks cold in the photograph below, well, it was.

But Ann and I had bundled for the weather, so we photographed until we felt we had done what we could that morning.

Which was about the time people started coming out.  The best thing about photographing in the pre-dawn light is that most people are still in bed so you can get people-less landscapes! 

When we got back to Beast, I couldn’t help but take a photograph of Beast and a sign at Badwater.  We took iPhone shots of our GPS while driving because it had a “-“ before the elevation number. This shot does it one better.  One of the most frequently asked questions we get is whether the snorkel is so we can go under water.  You can tell the folks who are joking and those who are seriously asking.  Now instead of saying, “No, it’s to get cooler, cleaner air into the engine.”  I can now say, “Yes, though we’ve only taken her about 280 feet below sea level!” 

The rest of the day was spent visiting many of the regular tourist sites as well as the places noted by the ranger the previous evening.  At Zabriskie point I found a composition that warranted going back to Beast to grab my camera.  However, even though I saw the image in black and white . . .

. . . I wonder whether the colors, limited as they are, don’t in fact add to the image.  

Then as we made our way back to Beast, I saw an image from, of all places, the parking lot. 

Throughout the day we’d been scouting out for possible morning photograph locations.  Artist’s Drive, Dante’s Peak and Zabriskie Point just didn’t seem like places we wanted to be first thing in the morning.  I had one final place on my checklist of places to explore, so we headed down the road a bit to take an off-road loop on 20 Mule Team Canyon Road.  Yup, that seemed to be the place.  So we pinned a couple of photo locations on our electronic maps, and then headed home to dinner and an early evening.  

Although not part of the story, it’s New Year’s Eve and I want to wish everyone a 2019 full of wonder, happiness and adventure!