Friday night came ’round, and I started drinkin’, heavily. Bullshitting with my girl and friends at the bar, we were like “ohhh let’s go shoot the wildflowers blooming in the Death Valley!!” “Fuck it, we out!”

… Despite our “lets do this” attitude, after many drinks, it was closing time for the bar and we were too drunk and tired to drive to the desert. We did, however, manage to get ourselves to a taco truck for late night burritos… They were smackin’.

The next day, after sleeping off a bit of a hangover, we decided that, next Friday, we would go to Death Valley.

After a week of work, Friday evening was finally upon us; and we were off. Leaving home around 10:00 pm after packing everything, we drove all night, arriving at the desert as the sun was coming up.

Driving on this road, I saw a Donkey crossing road sign. I remember thinking that it would be cool to see wild donkeys out here in the middle of nowhere.

A Few Miles down the road, I saw I saw something moving out there, so I pulled over, slapped my brand new super-cheapo super-mega lens on my camera.

 Fucking wild ass, yo!

So, it was my first time using the thing, and I didn’t set up a tripod real quick… excuses, excuses… my image is a little blurry. But, hey, at least I showed you the ass I got… Shout out to all my friends that be like “Pictures, or it didn’t happen”.

After the excitement, we kept rolling for another few miles, getting closer to that ridge and the valley behind it.

Until

We were in the thang.

And I’ll tell you what, that sun came out and got bright, and hot, real quick.

We Jumped back in the car and we were rollin’, but I had to stop because this thing caught my eye.

I had seen a few of these bulbs as we were driving, so I finally had to investigate.

I didn’t want to touch it ’cause it looked like one of those mushrooms that’s filled with deadly spores, who waits for some stupid motherfucker to come touch it before it explodes and sends millions of microscopic-parasitic-fungus barbs into the air and turns everyone who breathes it in into a zombie… No thanks.

But in reality, I think it’s just a sprouting of one of the many brush plants in the area. If any of you guys know, please let me know.

back on the road, in the direction we’re heading, it looks really windy and really sandy.

That can only mean 1 thing: sand dunes.

Did you guys read my previous post about the Guadalupe sand dunes? If you haven’t, check it out HERE. I got some good pictures that trip.

Deciding to check out these dunes later, we kept going further into the park. Those sand dunes came and went, and I discovered, for myself, that Death Valley is a barren wasteland.

I mean, with a name like Death Valley, you shouldn’t expect too much, right? But, it’s like Mordor in sunlight out there. I could have swore I saw a Nazgul flying around… but nah, that couldn’t be. Right?

After I took a couple shots of the nothingness, we kept exploring until we saw signs for trail.

Dang , yo! don’t walk after 10 am!! It get’s so hot out there that they had to put up signs recommending not to walk after 10 am.

We gangsta though, so we kept going.

And going.

Until we came to this turn where the rock wall had fallen. Suddenly, shit got real claustrophobic. I mean, you’re walking on this narrow trail, surrounded by these sheer cliff stone walls; then, you see this massive hunk of rock, strewn across your path…. “I wonder where that came from”. Fuck, yo, that’s at least a couple tons of rock that just decided to give way…

Vamonos a la chingada! pinche caloron, aca… we got outta there, to see what else we could see.

Water? In the desert?

I wonder if it’s good water.

Nope. It’s Badwater.

At 282 feet below sea level, Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America.

The funny thing about that is, Mount Whitney, which is only 86 miles from here, is the highest point in the 48 contiguous states of the U.S. That’s crazy, right? supercool.

She hit the flo’, next thing you know.

Shannon got low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low.

I couldn’t resist the urge to taste the salt on the ground. So, we went off the beaten path to where I’m sure no one had stepped on or peed on in a while, and I picked up a little chunk and I tasted it… it was salty.

Naw, but it was hard to walk, off the beaten path. The dirt was hard as stone, and all jagged and cracked and peeled. It would be extreme torture to walk around barefoot.

From Badwater Basin we saw a trail that led to a natural bridge. So we took the trail.

It led us here… Yeah, that’s a natural bridge, alright. I was a little underwhelmed when we arrived. You see, I’ve seen a few natural bridges before, but I realized that they’ve all been in the ocean. With the waves crashing, it adds a little more flare to it, I guess.

After we got back to the car from the natural bridge, we noticed it was starting to get a little late. We whipped out the map and found a vista point that looked out over the valley, so we booked it there to try to catch the sunset.

↑↑↑ This is probably my favorite picture from the trip ↑↑↑

↓↓↓ I also took video ↓↓↓

We spent the night up there at that lookout. we planned to get up after a few hours of sleep to do some astro-photography. That didn’t happen. I drove all night the and spent all day exploring in the heat. As soon as i got the chance, I was out cold.

The next morning, we saw a few more sights on our way to breakfast

For breakfast we went to the 49er cafe. It’s a cafe inside the park. It was really good, and the prices were right. AND they sold beer!

Alas, it was now Sunday, and  because all the passes through the Sierras were closed for winter, we had to travel south under the mountain range to go north. And that would add a couple hours to our drive. So we decided to get going. Back the way we came.

We drove past those sand dunes again and decided to check them out this time.

These sand dunes are formed by winds that picked up grains of eroded mountain. The wind carries the sand along with it, until the wind crashes into the side of a mountain that is too high to go over. These things were built one grain of sand at a time.

And they’re  ever-changing too, right? The wind blows and moves the sand around… You know how they say that no two snowflakes are alike? I bet you the same thing can be said about these sand dunes from day to day. Everyday, it’s different. 

I slapped on my telephoto to zoom in a little bit, and saw people climbing on them and footprints everywhere.

That’s cool man, it’s a national park; everyone please, have fun, and enjoy it. it’s ours to enjoy. That’s what it’s there for. But if there’s one thing that I hate as a photographer, its people and signs of people in my shots. Power lines, footprints, garbage… people really ruin some good looking landscapes.

Pressed for time, and just a tiny bit irritated about seeing people all over the dunes, we split.

The funny thing is, we came to death valley to see the flowers blooming in the desert. it wasn’t until we were leaving that we saw a couple cactus’ flowering.

But that was about it. A random little flower here and there.

Shannon got a little too close to the cactus trying to get here shot. 

Turns out, there wasn’t a bloom this year. Ha! that’s ok, we still had a blast.

We were just outside the park when I spotted this dude, crossing the road.

I never really though about it, until I saw this coyote: They really blend in well in there natural surroundings. I only picked him up because he was moving.

I wonder if he’s hot underneath all that fur, or if there’s some sort of natural evolutionary trick in the hair that keeps him cool…

We didn’t return exactly the way we came, because on the way home we found this spot.

Owens Lake was a very large lake, back in the day. In 1913, they diverted the Owens River to the LA aqueduct, and the lake dried up.

Can you Imagine how popular this lake would be if it were around today? I mean, those are snow-capped Sierras in the background! Imagine, drinking beers lounging at the lake shore in 90 degree weather with the Sierras as the backdrop. It would be DOPE.

Instead, you’ve got this dry lake that is the number one source of dust pollution in the US. But, I guess LA needs it’s water?

After snapping a few more images at Owens Lake, we packed our cameras away and headed home, concluding our Death Valley trip.

Thanks for reading.

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