December 3, 2015 In and Around Death Valley

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.  The good thing about a December visit — the low sun angle all day and the decent light and shadows for photography.  The bad thing about a December visit — the relatively few hours of daylight!  After our morning shoot at the Mesquite Dunes, we visited Zabriskie Point, Devil’s Golf Course, Badwater, and the canyon with the Natural Bridge.

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

The next stop was Devils Golf Course (no pics taken here, sorry!) and then Badwater (below).  Badwater looks a little different on every visit as the pool of water grows and dissipates.  The 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.

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!  Today was the perfect day for a hike to the bridge, with a temperature around 60F.  It seems like I am usually driving along this stretch from Furnace Creek to Badwater when the temperature is over 115F!  Who wants to go on a nature hike in that heat, right?!

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.”   I went online to check the name of the narrow canyon with the natural bridge in the Black Mountains.  I figured that it would be some intriguing name like “Starvation Canyon” or “Gower Gulch” or “Titanothere Canyon.”  Much to my dismay, the canyon with the natural bridge is named “Natural Bridge Canyon.”  Geez, how exciting is that name?!  Not.  How about something like “Certain Death To All Ye Who Enter Here Canyon?”  It is a little long, but it is more enticing.  “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.”  Lastly, why is it called a “natural” bridge?  Because it isn’t a gigantic freeway overpass bridge?  Why isn’t the Golden Gate Bridge called the “Unnatural Golden Gate Bridge?”  Why is it necessary to differentiate between natural bridges and unnatural bridges?  I say that we should let the casual observers figure it out for themselves!  I am going to start a petition to have the natural bridge renamed to “Bridge.”  If someone visits the “Bridge” and is unable to figure out that it is a natural bridge, then that is their problem.  You don’t drive around Death Valley and say “there’s a natural mountain range” or “there is a natural bird.”

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