Tag:badwater basin
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 […]
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 […]
So the only previous time I’d been to Death Valley, I stayed to the blacktop. But this time, this time I thought I’d try the dirt road capabilities of my rented Infiniti G35 Coupe. A few miles north of Ashford Millon Route 178 you can turn left onto the West Side Road. Aptly named, this 40-mile dirt road takes you to the west of Badwater Basin. This view is looking south, in the direction from which I have come. The […]
