 The Skywalk - Opening Day (Click image for larger view)
March 28, 2007 is not a day I’m going to forget in a hurry. This was the day that The Grand Canyon Skywalk opened for business. I rose super early and drove out from Las Vegas, crossing from Nevada into Arizona at the Hoover Dam and out along Highway 93, taking a left at Pierce Ferry Road and heading north-east before taking a right onto a dirt road that headed to Grand Canyon West on the lands of the Hualapai Tribe.
They seemed perhaps under prepared for the number of visitors that day. I recall the line for tickets was orderly and calm but frustratingly slow to navigate, in the main because the credit card authorization comms were very slow. I paid cash since the cash line was moving faster. Once through that I was onto a shuttle bus that took us from the ticket center near the airstrip up to the Skywalk.
Since then, they’ve proceeded with the construction of a visitor center and cafe above the horse shoe shaped bridge but back in 2007 all that was at the edge of the canyon was the bridge and a large trailer.
One of the purposes of the large trailer was to deposit loose items – bags, hats, etc. Nobody wants to lose something over the side and the Hualapai don’t want anyone throwing litter or other items over the side either. So I had to hand in my SLR gear before my walk. Indeed, you’re still requested to deposit cameras in the lockers before walking out on the bridge.
To protect the glass from scratches, we all had to put on booties over our shoes – all a bit CSI. The moment I stepped out onto the glass was the moment I decided I needed to carry a point-and-shoot (now an iPhone) with me at all times. Because others on the glass bridge were using point-and-shoot cameras to take photos looking straight down, but I didn’t have a point-and-shoot! At the time I was very annoyed but now, not so much.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve become more ‘height aware’. So most of the time I kept my feet above one of the two steel tracks that supports the glass floor, though I did take a few steps on the glass floor to pass some other people. It was freaky!
This image was taken after I took my walk. The bridge extends 70ft out from the canyon wall and the vertical drop at that point is over 4,000ft.
It’s about a two-hour drive from Las Vegas if you don’t stop and well worth taking a day out to visit. From the Grand Canyon South Rim Visitor Center it’s about a 4.5-hour drive. Oh, and their website carries a warning that Google Maps and MapQuest directions will mis-direct you to a town about 2-hours drive away!
Production Data
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens (B&H)
Processing: Lightroom 3.6
Processing: Photomatix 4.02
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: Nik Software Color Efex Pro 4 Complete Edition (B&H)
 Badwater from One Mile Above (Click image for larger view)
So I thought I’d post one more Death Valley photo before moving on. This one was taken hand-held with my 75-300mm (B&H) racked out to 300mm. You can’t actually see Badwater in this photo but you can see, on the right, the finger of white salt crust that leads out from the parking lot. The black dots on the white are people, more than a mile below me.
While less noticeable when actually down there, the purple of the manganese salts is clearly evident – it must be due to the relative angle of incidence and reflection of the light.
Of course, while I was watching the snow roll in around my location, the people down on the valley floor were just experiencing an overcast day.
Production Data
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III USM (B&H)
Processing: Lightroom 3.6
Processing: Photomatix 4.02
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: Nik Software Color Efex Pro 4 Complete Edition (B&H)
 Death Valley from Dante's View (Click image for larger view)
Arguably the best viewpoint in the Death Valley National Park is Dante’s View. Although only about a mile east-south-east from Badwater, it’s more than a mile vertically above it in elevation! It’s a 40 mile round trip from Badwater, the last 5 miles being restricted to vehicles less than 25ft long. It’s a paved road but there are some switch-backs and tight bends, hence the ‘no large RV or trailers’ rule. (Doesn’t mean you don’t find yourself trapped, crawling along behind a small RV though.)
This image is the view looking north-west across Badwater Basin to the foothills of the Panamint Range. The scale of the salt pan that covers over 200 square miles and is among the largest protected salt flats in the world is clearly evident. And from up here, the floor of the valley takes on different colors from the different mineral compositions in the sands and salts that make up the valley floor.
Earlier in the day, when I’d been driving up the West Side Road, I’d encountered a number of light, drizzly, rain showers. Looking strong in the sky, their power had evaporated by the time the moisture reached the valley floor.
The shot above was among the last shots I took that day. When that rain hanging from the cloud in the top right corner of the frame reached me, I found it was not rain at all at this altitude, it was snow!
Since the weather can change rapidly, and with the snow starting to settle on the ground around me, I decided it was time to tilt my rental car downhill and head back to Las Vegas.
Production Data
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens (B&H)
Processing: Lightroom 3.6
Processing: Photomatix 4.02
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: Nik Software Color Efex Pro 4 Complete Edition (B&H)
 The View Across Death Valley from Artist's Drive (Click image for larger view) So yesterday I posted a view of Artist’s Drive in Death Valleythat I first glimpsed in my rear view mirror. The view above is the one I had ahead of me having exited the canyon and making my way back to Route 178. Route 178 is that black line running across the frame about one-third of the way up from the bottom of the picture.
As you can see, to all intents and purposes, Death Valley has a flat base today, presumably made up of layers of silt and sediment laid down over the last few thousand years culminating in the salt crust that makes the surface today. The white areas are actually the lowest points, the last place from which the water evaporates to leave behind a crystalline layer that is 95% NaCl – table salt.
Once again, the clouds had rolled in shrouding this whole view in shade which only adds to the air of desolation. Seemingly devoid of plant life in this view, Death Valley is a fitting moniker.
Production Data
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens (B&H)
Processing: Lightroom 3.6
Processing: Photomatix 4.02
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: Topaz Adjust 5
Artist's Drive in Death Valley (Click image for larger view) I guess if there’s one single piece of advice I’d give other photographers it’s the old line we shout during scary movies, ‘Look behind you!’. The road to the Artist’s Palette is known as Artist’s Drive. It’s a one-way road. Most of us drive giving more attention to what’s in front of us, glancing in the rear view mirror from time-to-time to see what’s happening on the road behind us. And that was how I first spotted the view above, in my rear view mirror, as I was headed back to Route 178; the main road running south from furnace Creek past Badwaterto Shoshone.
This is a much more arresting sight than one sees when entering the loop of road that is Artist’s Drive. I’m not sure who chose which direction the traffic should flow in. Maybe the way it flows gives one a better view of the Artist’s Palette formations. Maybe it’s because there’s nowhere to pull off the road here – I had to park once out of the canyon and hike back to get this shot. The thing is, as the road winds out of the canyon you could easily blink and miss seeing this view!
Production Data
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens (B&H)
Processing: Lightroom 3.6
Processing: Photomatix 4.02
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: Topaz Adjust 5
Artists Palette in Death Valley (Click image for larger view) Artist’s Palette in Death Valleyis accessible from a one-way road about nine miles north of Badwater. You have to be careful if there is rain in the area because flash floods down the canyons of the Black Mountains have been known to completely trash cars! You can get a decent view from your car but for this view I yomped a few hundred yards from the road.
The colors in the rocks are caused by the oxidation of various minerals as the rock weathers and is exposed to the air and rain. The reds, pinks and yellows are from different salts of iron while the purple is from manganese and the green from mica or silicate minerals.
It really is quite special to stand there and take in this natural beauty. At the time I took this photo, there was only one other vehicle making the detour and the occupants of that were also hiking these foothills. The place was most serene, the only sound being that of the wind. While there I recalled a time when I was in deep in the Libyan Desert, standing in a natural bowl on a windless day. There was absolutely no sound. Curiously, I started to feel pain in my ears as they struggled to discern the slightest vibration in the air. It was as though my brain was cranking the volume up to eleven but still not gathering any information. It got to the point where I couldn’t stay still any longer, I had to create sound myself to relieve the pain.
Production Data
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens (B&H)
Processing: Lightroom 3.6
Processing: Photomatix 4.02
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: Nik Software Color Efex Pro 4 Complete Edition (B&H)
Badwater Basin - lowest point in the USA (Click image for larger view) So I think it’s obligatory to visit Badwater if you’re in Death Valley. Badwater is the lowest point in the USA at 282ft (85m) below sea level. Actually, the lowest point is some distance from here but this is where the sign is (far left) that everyone photographs. Set into the cliffs behind me is a sea level marker. Unless you zoom in on the marker, it almost never shows up in photos that attempt to show the vertical scale.
There’s a pull-out here to park in and steps and a ramp down to the salt. The decking here allows you to walk out over the brackish pool of water without risk of sinking in the foul goop under the crust. Sometimes you can see the Salt Creek pupfish in the water here – remnants of the the fish that use to live here when this was a lake several thousand years ago.
As you can see, you can also walk out onto the salt flat here, the ramp and deck accommodating wheel chairs. From this view it looks as though these folks should be skating on ice instead of crunching across the salt!
Production Data
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens (B&H)
Processing: Lightroom 3.6
Processing: Photomatix 4.02
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: Nik Software Color Efex Pro 4 Complete Edition (B&H)
Death Valley Salt Flat (Click image for larger view) From a distance, the salt flats at Badwater Basin in Death Valley look quite, well, flat. Indeed, if you visit Badwater and walk out onto the salt, the initial stretch where everyone walks is indeed flat. But off the beaten path, the flats are quite rough. The salt flats are made up of masses of polygonal structures of varying size. These are formed by expansion of the salt mud as the water evaporates and the salt crystals grow.
The park brochure warns the visitor not to hike on the salt flats in the summer. I’m guessing this is because the white salt reflects back more of the sun’s heat raising the temperatures even higher. The highest temperature recorded in the US was 134F (56.7°C) in Death Valley on July 10, 1913. The hottest temperature recorded on earth to date as 58°C (136F) in Libya on September 13, 1922.
I don’t know the hottest temperature I’ve worked in but I do recall one day working in Libya in the 1980s when the temperature mid-afternoon went over 50°C (122F). 50°C was as high as the thermometer at the airstrip nearby where we were working would go so we don’t know how high above 50°C it was. Have to say, it didn’t feel much different from 49°C!
Production Data
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens (B&H)
Processing: Lightroom 3.6
Processing: Photomatix 4.02
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: Nik Software HDR Efex Pro Software (B&H)
Salt River, Death Valley (Click image for larger view) This photo was taken where the West Side Roadcrosses the salt creek that flows (when it rains) from north to south along the valley.
The salt here is 95% NaCl (sodium chloride, or table salt) and forms a crust three to five feet thick. Whenever it rains, some of the white salt dissolves. As the water in the valley then evaporates the level of the water drops towards the lowest points in the valley which is why this view ends up showing a white stream of salt. The mud on either side is also part of the salt crust but the briny water has run off from these slightly higher elevations before evaporating completely.
This area is particularly rough, and after heavy rain, quite swampy so care is needed if hiking into it. Again, it’s a crust, so if you break the crust the muck underneath is quite goopy and foul.
As in the photos of the rain over Galena Canyon and Johnson Canyon, the rain here hangs in the sky but it was quite a quite feeble drizzle by the time if got to the bottom of the valley.
Production Data
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens (B&H)
Processing: Lightroom 3.6
Processing: Photomatix 4.02
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: Nik¤Software Color Efex Pro 4 Complete Edition (B&H)
Alluvial Fan (Click image for larger view) A little further north on the West Side Road, I captured this view east across Badwater Basin of an alluvial fan at the base of a washout in the Amargosa Range that runs down the eastern side of Death Valley.
This shot was taken with my Canon 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III USM (B&H) lens racked out to 300mm. As a consequence, the distance across the valley has been considerably compressed.
In the foreground is some scrubby vegetation. The orange layers in the middle are mudflats while the white band is a salt crust at the lowest point of the valley where all the moisture has evaporated. Beyond that is the alluvial fan of gravel washed down the gully behind it over innumerable rain and flash flood events over the last 10,000 years or so.
The richness of the geology of this area is evident in the exposed rock that forms the bulk of this image with a mixture of metamorphosed sedimentary and igneous rock formations.
Production Data
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III USM (B&H)
Processing: Lightroom 3.6
Processing: Photomatix 4.02
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: Topaz Adjust 5
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by Richard Davis
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