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When a group of clueless early pioneers heading for California decided to take a shortcut through its boundaries, this gem of incredible natural beauty and superlative climatic conditions became forever associated with this very negative name. But the “Death Valley” denomination is so inconsistent with the rich variety of animal and plant species that make this land their home and with the fact that this “valley” is not really a valley at all.
But what is now the lower 48 United States' largest national park (at 3.4 million acres, larger than the state of Connecticut) is foremost a land of extremes that includes the point with the lowest altitude (282 feet or 86 meters below sea level) and experiences the highest temperatures in North America (around 120 degrees Fahrenheit or 49 degrees Celsius).
This year's brief escape to Death Valley National Park after the 2009 National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas was actually a departure from my yearly tradition. At the end of February, I left the company where I have worked for what seems a lifetime and as of March 1st, I started working for the company of my dear friends from The Netherlands, whom I
have mentioned in several of my previous travel blogs... Pieter, Margot, Ynse, and André are now my close colleagues.
National Association of Broadcasters 2009 became our first professional event together and as such, it demanded extensive preparations that ran into the period of time prior to the event when I normally go searching for my “inner balance” in the surrounding areas of Las Vegas prior to the yearly marathon.
So it was that this “escape” took place after NAB and did not fulfill its intended objective prior to this year's particularly crazy and stressful event. In any case, recovering from the mental and physical drain was also a good excuse for this year's trip. I was looking forward to sharing the experience with my new colleagues as I have done in the past with friends and former colleagues.
Pieter had been wanting to shoot video around Las Vegas to use in our professional endeavors. Margot and André have worked many times with him in various broadcast productions. This was a great opportunity for me to experience how experienced video professionals work.
Unfortunately, when I finally arrived at our hotel on Thursday night after tear down at
Plant Surfers
(Thinking of you, Joaquin) the Las Vegas Convention Center, Pieter informed me that the team was too tired to do anything the following morning. I should not plan anything with them until the early afternoon to give them a chance to recover.
Not wanting to waste the best time for photography, I decided to proceed with my initial plan to visit Death Valley National Park, but agreed to return to the hotel by the time everyone was ready for action. And so it was that by 4:30 AM on Friday, I was already driving away from Las Vegas and by 6:30 AM I was already setting my camera at the rim of the observation area at Zabriskie Point, located just inside Death Valley National Park's eastern border.
I was amazed by the number of other people already there and doing exactly what I was doing. Pieter was missing great subjects for his video but perhaps by staying back in Las Vegas he was demonstrating to be more rational than I was - the wee hours of the morning are not a time for rational people to be awake, and much less wandering around in a wilderness as the early California pioneers discovered
the hard way!
But for me, the natural surroundings away from crowds were already working their magic and all the stress accumulated over the last several days appeared to be melting away... Perhaps being rational was not so important after all.
After enjoying Zabriskie Point and taking plenty of photos of the area with the low-angle sunlight, I decided to follow California 190 northwest towards an area of the park where unique geologic conditions come together to form large sand dunes not dissimilar to those found in places like the Sahara Desert in Northern Africa.
To reach the most photogenic areas of the dunes, I left my car by the side of the road near Stovepipe Wells and followed a path that took me to the edge where solid ground ends and the shifting sand dunes begin. Visitors quickly discover that it takes a lot of effort trying to climb to the cusp of the dunes from the sides; it is best to either stay in the “valleys” or walk on top of the dunes following their direction.
I zig-zagged my way deeper until I reached much larger dunes forming a landscape resembling ocean waves against
the backdrop of mountains rendered bluish by the distance. I did not see any other visitors venturing into this area but even if there were, the wind and shifting sand would quickly erase all traces of their presence.
I perched myself on top of a large dune and for the first time in a very long time it was just me and Planet Earth. I felt one with nature and not just another member of the insane human race; I had found what I came searching for!
I don't know exactly how long I stayed there, but it came the time when I noticed that the sun had already climbed substantially away from the horizon. I needed to start my slow zig-zag back to where I had left my rental car.
At this point, I needed to be very mindful of time. Before heading back to Las Vegas to rejoin my friends, I wanted to quickly survey other areas of interest in the park for future reference. Perhaps I still could drive through Artists Palette and only if time allowed it, I would also drive to Dantes View, to enjoy the vistas from there.
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Andre
non-member comment
great!
Hi Luis, Great pictures, beautifull light, an other world! I look forward to see this during our summer holiday. Thanks, Andre