Friday, October 23, 2009

Eastern Sierras Trip #4


Another day, another early start, this time to watch the sun rise at the famed Death Valley sand dunes. This time around there were less than a handful of other photographers in evidence so we had more of this place to ourselves than before. The dunes themselves are a bit of a hike from the road but that bit was fine. What killed me was hiking up and down these things to reach an interesting point from which to photograph. In all honesty, next time around I'd come in more from the west and do a better job of getting into a place where the hills in the background were less prominent, but having said all that it was still a wonderful location regardless.

While I was taking shots of large piles of sand, S was taking pictures of the local wildlife devouring each other, grabbing a great shot that I'll post at some future date showing a desert canine happily trotting off with an nice, fat early morning snack.

To recover, we headed to the nearby park gate (Stove Pipe Wells) in order that we too might grab breakfast, and for me to rehydrate too! Clambering up and down giant beaches without the benefit of drinking water was way more exercise & physical stress than I had originally planned to take at 6:30 am!

After eating we went to Mosaic Canyon. Supposedly, when the sun is up and striking the walls, the polished rocks are supposed to shine in different colours, looking like some sort of illuminated mosaic. Perhaps so, but it never worked for us. Nevertheless, it offered an interesting hike of a few miles into and out of the canyon and once again we had the place to ourselves for much of the time we spent there.

From there it was back to the hotel, checking-out and then driving onto Lone Pine in preparation for the next phase of our trip. To be continued ....

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