After the sunrise at Zabriskie Point we went on to hike Desolation Canyon, which is just a short distance away. As mentioned in the previous post, clouds began to move in quickly. We drove down from Zabriskie Point, made our left turn from CA-190 onto Badwater Road, and wow! A beautiful stripe of warm morning light illuminated the landscape.
Shuwen asked me to stop because she had spotted the water from her side of the car and wanted to make a photo. Having just filled my memory card with 40+ exposures in one hour, at Zabriskie Point, I was a bit reluctant to stop within five minutes already and continue making photos, but Shuwen urged me to take a look too.
This beautiful Desert Holly (Atriplex hymenelytra) convinced me. They’re among my favorites in the desert (I have some photos with them lined up for a future Themed Gallery). So here I could combine one of the most drought-tolerant shrubs with water, in the desert! And the longer I looked at this seemingly simple landscape photo, the more I began to like it, so here’s a “single” from between locations. :)
A sliver of warm morning sunlight falls onto the vast expansive of Middle Basin, with an ephemarl rivulet winding through the coarse desert landscape. Interesting cloud shapes hang over the snow-covered peaks of the Panamint Range. Death Valley National Park, California; January 2023.
This part of Death Valley’s central basin is called Middle Basin. Further south it’s called Badwater Basin, further north the name is Cottonball Basin. Even further, north of CA-190, it’s called Mesquite Flat.
Next up will be the photos from our Desolation Canyon hike. Or at least some of them, because I’ve made a LOT of exposures there. Might take a while.
Thanks, Shuwen! The quality of the light in the foreground is beautiful – very “in-between” looking, truly not-light, not-dark. The sliver of sunlight, the mountains and clouds – it’s an altogether calming, expansive desert scene.
I will pass it on. :)