Just back....
Just spent a few days over in Death Valley. Stayed at the Panamint Springs "Resort". If you've ever stayed there you'll know the term "resort" is a stretch. What we did find was an extremely friendly staff, a clean room, and great food.
We got in Sunday and after checking in headed for Darwin Falls. Its not as easy as they make it sound. To reach the falls from the bottom we would have to have had a machete and chain saw it was so overgrown. We decided to forgo the 12 mile off road trip to the top and then hike down. We decided we much rather try something else.
That something else was the Mesquite Dunes at Stovepipe Wells. We hiked out to the dunes and I set up the camera and tripod. Sally, my dear wife, was so patient, God love her. After the dunes we headed back to Panamint and had dinner at the restaurant. The food is on the pricey side but after a day of hiking and touring, it was worth every penny. Sally had a regular burger and I had the "Cardiac Arrest"; Angus burger, blue cheese and crisp bacon, all the trimmings and a healthy serving of excellent fries.
Monday it was off to, originally, the "Race Track" until I saw the small print on the map that said you had better have heavy duty off-road tires due to the razor sharp rocks. Having combo on/off road tires on the FJ Criuiser I imagined us stuck 28 miles out in the desert with 4 slashed tires. It was an easy decision to visit Ubehebe Crater and then Scotty's Castle. From there is was off to Badwater and Artist Drive. It was a bit of a hike out to a viewpoint for Artist Pallette but well worth it. Shot a panorama of it. A quick stop at Zabriskie Point and then back to Panamint where I had a bowl of the chili (awesome with a glass of Blue Paddle beer) and Sally had their spaghetti dinner (with italian sausage).
Today, a quick trip to Salt Creek, a stop to shoot a cool abstract piece of lava, shooting of a panorama from Zabriskie Point, another panorama from Dante's View, a cool 30 mile cross country 4 wheel drive cruise through Greenwater Valley and popping out of the parks southeast corner near Shoshone and dropping into Baker for the trip down I15 home.
I will be processing images this week and will be posting as I work on them.
Stand By...
AgentZ
