Death Valley – Day 2
After a nice sleep in the FJ on my custom made shelf/bed unit, I started out toward the Racetrack Playa. My plan was to stop by Scotty’s Castle and Ubehebe Crater on the way. The weather was nice, mid 60′s and not a cloud in the sky. I didn’t need gas because I had gone to Furnace Creek to fill up on their over priced gas the night before.
The drive to Scotty’s Castle is pretty easy. It’s all paved roads in the north end of the valley. There were plenty of signs that the rain the week before had been harsh with lots of spots on the road that had evidence of mud/debris flows. None of them would stop traffic today, but during the storm there could have been problems. And fortunately, it was a weekend because they were doing LOTS of road work where they would shut down the road for long periods of time to get something done. The fortunate part? They don’t work on weekends.
Scotty’s Castle was built by a Albert Johnson, a millionaire from Chicago who had invested in Walter Scott’s non-existant goldmine. Mr. Johnson visited “Death Valley Scotty” several times to see the mine and on one of his trips he brought his wife who fell in love with the area. She insisted on building a nice little place to stay because she wasn’t about to stay in the tent with the rest of the men. The result is what is now known as Scotty’s Castle. The last shot here is a panorama, something that I wanted to start trying while in Death Valley.
Scotty's Castle
The Clocktower
Building Detail
Gate Detail
Gate Crest
Castle Panorama
The Ubehebe Crater is an ancient volcano crater that is about 5,000 year old. The road to the crater was closed and I just didn’t feel like walking. So, no go.
The road to the Racetrack Playa was nice. Dirt, not super rough, and LONG. 32 miles long. The scenery was gorgeous and the weather great. I stopped once when a couple of cactus on the side of the road caught my eye.
Desert Cactus
Backlit Cactus
The FJ was pure joy to drive on this road; almost like it belonged there.
FJ in the Desert
After 22.5 miles, the first stop was Teakettle Junction. The junction is a sign that people attach tea kettles to. I have NO idea how this tradition started, but it did live up to it’s name. There were over 50 different tea kettles attached to the sign. Most of them were signed and dated. I really wish I had remembered to bring one, but…
FJ at Teakettle Junction
Russian Visitors
Another 9.5 miles later, I arrived at the Racetrack Playa. It was under water. Or most of it was. The moving rocks are all located on the south end of the playa and it was completely wet. You do NOT walk on the playa when it is wet because you will leave footprints that won’t go away for many years.
North End of Racetrack Playa with the Grandstand on the Right
South End of the Racetrack Playa Under Water
The north end of the playa was dry enough not to leave tracks, so I went to find a campsite, take a short nap, and wait for dusk. The road between the campground (if you can call it that) and the playa was one of the worst I have ever seen. Washboarded to the point that there was NO speed that you didn’t feel like your teeth were going to fall out.
Washboard Road
I think that due to the rain, there were no tracks around any of the rocks, but that wasn’t a problem. I was there to shoot star trails with the rocks and the grandstand in the fore ground and I spent the next two and half hours, from 7-9:30, standing in the middle of the playa taking pictures. I run into two gentlemen from Salinas Valley (I think), after talking to Sreekanth he was unfortunate and had his Nikon D90 go down and it hadn’t been returned before his trip so he was using a point & shoot for his star trails. I didn’t get a good look at his image, but he seemed fairly satisfied with some of his images.
I was trying something new here; star trails. This is the first image that I put together from several images. I don’t like it too much for several reasons. First, the foreground is boring because there was a new moon. It was PITCH black outside so no details in the image. I did take a couple of shots during the blue period that I used to give the image some foreground interest. Not great interest, but better than nothing. Second, I didn’t follow the primary rule when doing something new: Don’t try to learn it when you need it; learn it before so you are ready when you need it. I thought I knew how to use the camera’s intervelometer, but I was WRONG!
Star Trails Over The Grandstand on The Racetrack Playa
I will be attempting star trails in the future. I have to work out some of the kinks. Ok, not kinks, more like huge knots.
After finishing up, I drove back to the campsite, had dinner, and went to bed. I had some exploring to do the next day.
To view all of the images from Death Valley click here.
