It rained last week. As fate would have it I had a motorcycle meetup in Death Valley planned. It’s an annual thing, I consider it to be my last harrah for the summer riding season. Lucky me! If you’ve been to Death Valley NP you likely were greeted with clear blue skys. Average rainfall is less that two inches, according to the National Park web site. With so little rain the odds of seeing clouds in those blue skies is slim. Knowing we might have some weather excited the landscape photographer hidden inside me. I wasn’t dissappointed.

Somehow I didn’t get wet, but the Valley put on a show. At one point I had to stop alongside the highway to take a few photos. Perhaps my favorite is the image with the rainbow. Somehow, a sliver in the cloud cover shined only below the rainbow giving the impression it was illuminating the rain beneath it. There were so many other images I didn’t get along the roadside as I was coming or going with a group of other riders. Hey, a guy can only impose on his buddies so many times. The pictures in my mind will have to do.

Somehow I didn’t get wet, but the Valley put on a show. At one point I had to stop alongside the highway to take a few photos. Perhaps my favorite is the image with the rainbow. Somehow, a sliver in the cloud cover shined only below the rainbow giving the impression it was illuminating the rain beneath it. There were so many other images I didn’t get along the roadside as I was coming or going with a group of other riders. Hey, a guy can only impose on his buddies so many times. The pictures in my mind will have to do.

A simimlar situation occurred at the lookout for Star Wars Canyon (officially Rainbow Canyon). The two photos were taken from Father Crowley Overlook off California State Route 150. In the distance on a plateau the sun shone on a dip in the mountain range. A perfect backdrop for my motorcycle.

Here is the link to my Death Valley gallery. https://www.davewaltersphoto.com/Landscapes/Death-Valley It contains photos from several visits dating from 2010. As you might expect a variety of cameras were used over the fifteen year timespan. I doubt you can tell the differnece between the 1950’s Voightlander Vito B 35mm film camera, the Nikon D7100, and the Olympus OMD EM-5 MII. It’s not important which is which because the best camera is the one you have with you.

I’m not done with Death Valley. I have some photos of Scotty’s Castle I haven’t posted. More importantly I still have places I want to go, not the least is the Racetrack. I’m sure the gallery will grow over the coming years. I guess I’ll have to start a new gallery to capture Death Valley Junction, home of the Amargosa Hotel and Opera House. (I did a few postings in 2024 https://historywithdave.org/2024/11/06/amargosa-hotel-at-death-valley-junction/ and https://historywithdave.org/2024/12/21/near-death-valley-junction-down-the-road-a-piece/)  Some images from the abandoned railroad line and what’s left of the buildings they used to fill the steam engines with water, load ore, and do whatever else miners and railroaders did in the desert will end up there also.

I met a photographer in Puget Sound who said once he had been in a location he never went back. I’ve thought about his advise and have rejected it. I never get tired of visiting Yosemite and I guess I have to say the same about Death Valley, although the beauty in the desert has taken me a while to appreciate.