{"id":13520,"date":"2015-12-03T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T08:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/?p=13520"},"modified":"2015-12-12T15:17:40","modified_gmt":"2015-12-12T23:17:40","slug":"december-3-2015-in-and-around-death-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/2015\/12\/03\/december-3-2015-in-and-around-death-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"December 3, 2015 In and Around Death Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This was my friend Marcia’s first visit to Death Valley, so I wanted to squeeze in as many interesting locations into this day as I could. \u00a0The good thing about a December visit — the low sun angle all day and the decent light and shadows for photography. \u00a0The bad thing about a December visit — the relatively few hours of daylight! \u00a0After our morning shoot at the Mesquite Dunes, we visited Zabriskie Point, Devil’s Golf Course, Badwater, and the canyon with the Natural Bridge.<\/p>\n

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\"151203_9582_Zabrikie\"<\/a> \"151203_9586_Zabriskie\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Zabriskie Point (above) is an easy 10 or 15 minute drive from the Furnace Creek ranch area. \u00a0The best light is around sunrise, and we were there a couple of hours after sunrise.<\/p>\n

The next stop was Devils Golf Course (no pics taken here, sorry!) and then Badwater (below). \u00a0Badwater looks a little different on every visit as the pool of water grows and dissipates. \u00a0The area looks a bit different compared to 15 to 30 years ago as the Park Service has tried to protect the pool area from foot traffic.<\/p>\n

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\"151203_9587_Badwater\"<\/a> \"151203_9590_Badwater\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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I have passed by the road to the Natural Bridge at least a dozen times in my lifetime, but I had never bothered to check it out! \u00a0Today was the perfect day for a hike to the bridge, with a temperature around 60F. \u00a0It seems like I am usually driving along this stretch from Furnace Creek to Badwater when the temperature is over 115F! \u00a0Who wants to go on a nature hike in that heat, right?!<\/p>\n

A lot of the names of the canyons and mountains and points of interest in Death Valley have fabulous and sometimes morbid names, such as the “Funeral Mountains” and “Coffin Peak” and “Desolation Canyon.” \u00a0 I went online to check the name of the narrow canyon with the natural bridge in the Black Mountains. \u00a0I figured that it would be some intriguing name like “Starvation Canyon” or “Gower Gulch” or “Titanothere Canyon.” \u00a0Much to my dismay, the canyon with the natural bridge is named “Natural Bridge Canyon.” \u00a0Geez, how exciting is that name?! \u00a0Not. \u00a0How about something like “Certain Death To All Ye Who Enter Here Canyon?” \u00a0It is a little long, but it is more enticing. \u00a0“Natural Bridge Canyon” is a good descriptive name, sure, but I don’t see any other canyons named “Rock Along the Trail Canyon” or “Steep Cliffs Canyon” or “Very Few Plants Canyon.” \u00a0Lastly, why is it called a “natural” bridge? \u00a0Because it isn’t a gigantic freeway overpass bridge? \u00a0Why isn’t the Golden Gate Bridge called the “Unnatural Golden Gate Bridge?” \u00a0Why is it necessary to differentiate between natural bridges and unnatural bridges? \u00a0I say that we should let the casual observers figure it out for themselves! \u00a0I am going to start a petition to have the natural bridge renamed to “Bridge.” \u00a0If someone visits the “Bridge” and is unable to figure out that it is a natural bridge, then that is their problem. \u00a0You don’t drive around Death Valley and say “there’s a natural mountain range” or “there is a natural bird.”<\/p>\n

Below are the cool shots in Natural Bridge Canyon. \u00a0The canyon features several dry waterfalls and nice, steep side walls. \u00a0We walked in about a half mile or so from the end of the road. \u00a0The bright sunlight and shadows made for some tough photography, but Photoshop helped a lot.<\/p>\n

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\"151203_9599_Nat-Bridge\"<\/a> \"151203_9614_Nat-Bridge\"<\/a> \"151203_9612_Nat-Bridge\"<\/a> \"151203_9608_Nat-Bridge\"<\/a> \"151203_9598_Nat-Bridge\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  This was my friend Marcia’s first visit to Death Valley, so I wanted to squeeze in as many interesting locations into this day as… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,61,36,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-62","7":"category-death-valley","8":"category-desert","9":"category-landscapes","10":"entry","11":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13520"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13531,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13520\/revisions\/13531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}