Collection 2: Death Valley, in bloom this year for what is said to be a once in a 100 year event!

Land and rock scapes, desert plants and flowers.

Death Valley, California, situated between the Amargosa and Panamint mountain ranges, is an area of the sea bed upthrust 400 to 500 million years ago. Now in the shape of a bowl, with the lowest part 282 feet below sea level and the highest of the surrounding mountains at 11,049 feet above sea level, it is an area of extreme temperatures. Air heated by the sun is trapped by the surrounding mountains and reflected back into to bottom of the valley to be heated again, whilst the themselves mountains capture rain clouds approaching the valley, thus making it one of the driest places on Earth. Temperatures regularly reach 120 deg.F, with a record high of 134 deg.F recorded in 1913.

Photos on the CD are views from Hell's Gate (unfortunately, due to the severe weather experienced in California in early 2005, the normal entry point to the valley, Dante's View, was closed), Sand Dunes, Old Stovepipe Wells, the only source of sweet water in the Sand Dunes area and so called due to the length of stove pipe inserted into the top of the well to identify it amongst the shifting sand dunes, wagons at Furnace Creek Ranch used in the 20-Mule Team Wagon Trains used for transporting the borax mined in the valley, Errol Flynn's hideaway, vast salt pans, Devil's Golf Course, breathtaking Land and Rock scapes and showing the abundance of flowers occasioned by the heavy rain earlier in the year, and Badwater Basin, so called because an early surveyor, on bringing his donkey to drink there found that the donkey would not drink the water. He wrote 'bad water' in his report - the name stuck.

1. View 1 down the valley from Hell's Gate.

2. View 2 down the valley from Hell's Gate.

3. View down the valley with snow covered Telescope Peak in the distance.

4. Creosote Bush. What the US gets timber preserving fluid from - not the same as UK creosote, which is distilled from the roots of Beech trees. It also smells different.

5. Desert Holly

6. Gravel Ghost.

7. Beavertail Cactus 1.

8. Beavertail Cactus 2.

9. Beavertail Cactus 3.

10. Beavertail Cactus 4.

11. Death Valley Phacelia.

12. Notch-Leaved Phacelia.

13. Yellow Cups.

14. Weakstem Mariposa Lily.

15. Yellow Cups.

16. Beavertail Cactus, centre, Death Valley Phacelia, front right, Creosote Bush, behind.

17. Death Valley landscape.

18. A parasitic plant, the orange mat envelops plants, and kills them. Very moist to the touch, it eventually dries out.

19. Indigo Bush.

20. Silver Cholla Cactus.

21. Death Valley Phacelia.

22. View down the valley on the descent down from Hell's Gate.

23. Landscape with Death Valley Phacelia, front right, Desert Holly, left, Beavertail Cactus, centre, Creosote Bushes and Desert Holly, behind.

24. Landscape, Death Valley Phacelia, Beavertail Cactus and Creosote Bushes.

25. Rock strata.

26. Mojave Pincushion.

27. Desert Sunflower.

28. Field of Desert Gold Poppies.

29. Desert Gold Poppies and Desert Sunflowers.

30. Desert Sunflowers, Creosote Bushes in the distance.

31. Approaching Sand Dunes area.

32. Sign at Stovepipe Wells explaining that this well is at the meeting point of 2 Indian trails. But, because it kept being covered over by sand, a length of stovepipe was inserted in the top of it to show its whereabouts.

33. Stovepipe Wells and sign.

34. Sand Dunes and Stovepipe Wells itself.

35. Sand Dunes 1.

36. Sand Dunes 2.

37. Sand Dunes 3.

38. Trail said to be left by setlers 100 years ago (centre foreground of picture, going away up the mountain to the pass, centre background). Because there is very little erosion in the valley, the trail is still visible today, 100 years after it was made.

39. 20 Mule Wagon Train at Furnace Creek Ranch, used to transport the borax mined in the valley.

40. Close up of one wagon of 20 Mule Wagon Train.

41. Sign at Furnace Creek Ranch explaing the weight of the wagons and of the borax they carried.

42. Mansion built for Errol Flynn to hide away from public view and indulge his exotic pleasures. Now an upmarket hotel.

43. Rockscape 1.

44. Rockscape 2.

45. Rockscape 3.

46. Rockscape 4.

47. Rockscape 5.

48. Rockscape 6.

49. Rockscape 7.

50. Rockscape 8.

51. Rockscape 9.

52. Rockscape 10.

53. Approaching salt pans.

54. Salt pan.

55. Devil's Golf Course. The white you see is salt, not snow. This forbidding landscape is composed of crystallised salts deposited by ancient salt lakes. Shaped by winds and rain, they are forever changing. It is said that on a warm day you may even hear a cracking sound as the salt pinacles expand and contract.

56. Salt water pool at Devil's Golf Course.

57. Close up of salt water pool. The green colour is caused by minerals in the soil, not algae - there is no algae in the valley.

58. Devil's Golf Course, view 2.

59. Salt seen crystalling out on top of a salt water pool.

60. Devil's Golf Course, view 3.

61. Rockscape 11.

62. Rockscape 12.

63. Rockscape 13.

64. Rockscape 14.

65. Badwater Basin, said to be the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and, therefore, where floods from rain falling on the surrounding mountain tops collects, bringing with it salts dissolved from the rocks on the way. The water evaporates leaving the salt behind.

66. Sign indicating distance below sea level and view out toward salt pan. The boardwalk was an attempt to protect the salt crust being trampled by visitors viewing the salt water pools, but when the water level drops in summer, it is a long way to the water, so a salt path is now traced out.

67. Salt water pool. Whilst extremely dry in the valley, this and some other pools contain water year-round, fed from underground springs. Not poisonous, just very salty. When an early surveyor led his donkey to the water, it would not drink. He wrote 'bad water' in his report and the name stuck. But it is home to some aquatic insects and the Badwater Snail.

68. Walking out to salt pan.

69. Looking back from salt pan.

70. View of salt pan, with snow covered Telescope peak just visible at top of picture.

71. View over salt pan.

72. View from Badwater Basin up to Dante's View, the normal place of entry to Death Valley. In 2005 Dante's View was inaccessible due to the road having been washed away by floods, first in January, then again in February after it had been repaired.

73. Another view from Badwater Basin up to Dante's View.

74. Salt pan at Badwater, middleground, 282 feet below sea level, snow covered Telescope Peak, background, 11,049 feet above sea level. This is what the setlers, who came down the trail in Photo 38, had to surmount to reach California. On reaching the top, one of them looked back and said "Goodbye death valley", and the name stuck!

75. Another view of salt pan at Badwater, middleground, 282 feet below sea level, snow covered Telescope Peak, background, 11,049 feet above sea level.

These photos are all JPEG images, digitally originated at 2048 x 1536 pixels, using a Fuji Finepix S602 Zoom digital camera. Some have been cropped to remove identifiable people and man-made objects.

This collection, plus the narrative, is offered for sale, on CD, for private use only, at £9.99. You are not allowed to resell it, or the images it contains!

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For commercial use, or for resale, individual photos are available at commercial rates - please contact us at office@mediapipe.uk.com

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