Driving Down To Death Valley

[Drew Wiley]

Feb can be very pleasant. But once the wind picks up (usually in March), fine clay dust can be a real problem and get into everything. So you'll want all your camera and film gear well wrapped. Obviously if you have your camera propped up next to a dirt road and someone comes zipping by in a 4WD it could really mess things up.
But there are lots of places to go to get elbow room, and plenty of paved roads if that is your preference. Also beware of what both salt and high mineral-content
local water can do to lenses. A very different ballgame than in the Northwest. Carry lots of extra water if you're hiking around. It can be a bit crowded in the only
two mini-towns in the area, but if you are properly equipped for a bit of grubby camping, there are all kinds of wonderful places you can pull over for a nite.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Actually, I'll be there in mid March... I usually wrap up my gear, as I've done quite a bit of photography in the sand dunes of Southern Saskatchewan. Very hot, dry, windy place.

[Vaughn]

And I will be there the last week of February...so I'll miss you by a couple weeks.

Enjoy your time there -- nothing specific to all the info you got. Sometimes one just has to keep an eye out for interesting things and go exploring!

The one of the palm -- I just saw the top of the palm in the distance, parked the van, grabbed the 8x10 and went for a look -- perhaps a quarter mile from the road. The other two were in a neat-looking area on the other side of the road. (the first two are platinum prints, 8x10 and 4x10...and the other is an older 16x20 silver gelatin from 4x5).

[Andrew O'Neill]

Thanks for sharing your images, Vaughn.

[Sideshow Bob]

I'll be there around Feb 14th for the full moon. If you see an old guy in a full size white Ford van,stop and say hi.
Mr.Gale

[Vaughn]

Dang -- I'll miss the full moon -- might get a crescent in the early morning hours, I suppose...I won't get there until about Feb. 24th.

Thanks Andrew -- I like tossing in an image in a post...even if it has been posted before.

Both with 4x5, both 16x20 silver gelatin prints. First one was when I just wandered up a canyon until I could go no further (Golden Canyon) and the other from the road (next to the car) in Twenty Mule Team Canyon.

[Darin Boville]

If you see an old guy in a full size white Ford van,stop and say hi.
Mr.Gale

That would describe half the locals--and some of the staff!

--Darin

[Andrew O'Neill]

I'll be there in March, so I'll miss both of you. I might use your tripod holes...

[Drew Wiley]

Aaaah, such memories... back when I was a heat-tolerant kid, hiking across Death Valley by moonlight in May (just a little too hot during the day)... Trying to climb
the steep side of Manley Beacon (yeah.. that was nuts). ... tracing fossils footprints up vertical sandstone walls, in secret parts of the park that officially didn't exist.
Haven't been done there since a few years back when there was a thirty-mile long lake in the Valley. That has happened just once in my lifetime. But the good news
is, if our drought keeps going much longer, the whole rest of the state might qualify to be included in Death Valley Natl Park!

[Sideshow Bob]

Also, the road to the Racetrack is VERY washboard and dusty but you don't need a 4x4.

Mr.Gale