Badwater Basin’s Back, Baby!
One of my goals in the next two weeks is to finish posting the Death Valley photos. What don’t make it to the site will go to Flickr. And then I have the Doheny Blues Fest photos to clear out. Two portrait sessions to finish for my dear friends. And finally, I’ll have 10-20 or more sittings from the OpLove session on the beach this Saturday to edit. All that in two weeks. Before I head off to Alaska and return home with another couple thousands of photos. (I’ll just let that sink in for a minute or ten.*)
In the meantime, here’s more of Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America. From Wikipedia:
Badwater is a basin in California’s Death Valley, noted as the lowest point in North America, with an elevation of 282 feet (86.0 m) below sea level.
The site itself consists of a small spring-fed pool of water next to the road; however, the accumulated salts of the surrounding basin make it undrinkable, thus the name “Badwater”. The pool does have animal and plant life, including pickleweed, aquatic insects, and the Badwater snail.
Adjacent to the pool, where water is not always present at the surface, repeated freeze-thaw and evaporation cycles gradually pushed the thin salt crust into curiously hexagonal honeycomb shape.
The pool itself is not actually the lowest point of the basin: the lowest point is several miles to the west and varies in position. However, the salt flats are hazardous to traverse (in many cases being only a thin white crust over mud), and so the sign is at the pool.
Those hexagonal honeycomb shapes were hard to capture adequately when we were there. Much of the dirt and sand was mixed in. Still, it was a fascinating place to which I will return again.
* Yes, I’m really going to Alaska and no I won’t tell you who’s taking me. A girl has to have some secrets, doesn’t she? Unfortunately, I’m only going for four days, with two of those travel days. Still, doesn’t matter. We’ll have 20+ hours of sun each day. I’m going to make the most of every single one of those hours if it kills me. I’m going to be shooting a great deal, I’ll be with wonderful people, having much fun, and will have many stories and photos to share when I return. And no. None of this has anything to do with Deadliest Catch or Discovery Channel.
#3, with the people, is something that normally I would not like in a photo of a natural scene. But here they lend the scenery a really strong sense of perspective.
As in, it puts us in our place, at least for a little while.
So far this is my favorite from the whole trip.
I have to go back and look at that caboose again :-)
Comment by Lloyd — 2009/06/11 @ 23:25
Are you saying you’re checkin’ out my caboose? :rofl:
Yeah, I’m not much for having people in the middle of a landscape or scenic image, but they do give scale in this case. The basin was just so immense! We walked and walked and walked almost as far out as we could and then strolled on back. To be standing back at the entrance, it was really amazing to think how vast it really was. Add to that the mountains in the FAR distance, it was incredible.
I’m going to repeat myself here and say: this is a trip everyone should take at least once in their life.
Comment by DaGoddess — 2009/06/12 @ 01:16
“Are you saying you’re checkin’ out my caboose?”
And how well it holds up in comparison to others!
Visiting North Vancouver BC would be a treat for mountain lovers, too. Although now you need a passport.
My Dad was stationed on Attu Island in the Aleutians in 1943. Back then you needed to be in uniform to visit.
Comment by Lloyd — 2009/06/12 @ 10:03
You’ll have to let me know on the caboose issue. lol
Wanderlust has taken hold of me something fierce lately. I blame The Fat Guy. When he buys his Airstream, I’m running away with him. He thinks I’m kidding. Can’t say I didn’t warn him though!
Comment by DaGoddess — 2009/06/12 @ 17:19
Nice Death Valley photos! I can be charmed by textured close-ups, and middle-distance shots can take me into them, but it’s the great horizons that I find so evocative of the desert.
Comment by Robert W. Franson — 2009/06/13 @ 17:58
Thank you, Robert.
I do have many textures (close ups!), but those are for another place and time.
I do believe Badwater and 20 Mule were the highlights. Although, if pressed for a definitive answer, I couldn’t say for certain. The vastness and the diversity of Death Valley means there are a million favorites to be discovered.
Comment by DaGoddess — 2009/06/13 @ 21:57