Artists Palette/Artist Drive - Death Valley National Park (Part 34)

At the end of November last year (2012), I took a trip to Death Valley National Park. This is the second trip there in my life. The 1st time I went, I was still a little kid, and I didn't start taking photos yet. This time, I have a pro camera and I am ready to shoot the scenery. Death Valley National Park is known for its "out of this world" scenery, UFO sightings, and many other things. The desert is a very mysterious and beautiful place. In this chain of blog posts, I will be showing you mainly photos of Death Valley National Park, but also photos from surrounding areas like The Mojave Desert, Alabama Hills, and Rhyolite Ghost Town. I have picked out over 400 photos from my trip to show you guys and I will be dividing them into many blog posts. Unlike blog  post chains before, I obviously can't put a link of ever blog post on every single blog post, so instead, I will do the same thing I did for my Yellowstone National Park photos before, by sticking a link of the Next and Previous post on each blog post instead.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best work from Death Valley National Park, use this link. To see all of the photos from my Death Valley National Park trip use this link.

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Today I show the last of the photos from Artist Drive and Artists Palette. Also, here is my intro to Artists Palette again for those of you who missed it. Artists Palette is famous for its colorful rocks caused by chemical reactions of the mineral rich soil. Definitely visit the area as the scenery is very beautiful and you don't really have to hike a lot. To get there, you take Artist Drive, which is a one way paved road. Here are the photos for today.

Moon rising over Artists Palette.  

Colorful mountains in Artists Palette.  

Scenery 

 The moon high in the sky

HDR of the hills. Notice the colors and the shadows of the photographers. See if you can spot me. :P 

HDR of the colorful rocks. The shadow is me.  

 HDR of the colorful rocks of Artists Palette.

Many dry water formations can be seen through Death Valley National Park as the area used to be a huge lake before climate changes lead to desertification of the area.  

HDR Composition 

 HDR Composition

More scenery as the sun was setting.  

HDR Sunset 

One more sunset photo before exiting Artist Drive. 

These are all the photos for today! Next time, I will continue with photos from near Furnace Creek and Furnace Creek itself. They are mostly sunset and night photos. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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Artists Palette/Artist Drive - Death Valley National Park (Part 33)

At the end of November last year (2012), I took a trip to Death Valley National Park. This is the second trip there in my life. The 1st time I went, I was still a little kid, and I didn't start taking photos yet. This time, I have a pro camera and I am ready to shoot the scenery. Death Valley National Park is known for its "out of this world" scenery, UFO sightings, and many other things. The desert is a very mysterious and beautiful place. In this chain of blog posts, I will be showing you mainly photos of Death Valley National Park, but also photos from surrounding areas like The Mojave Desert, Alabama Hills, and Rhyolite Ghost Town. I have picked out over 400 photos from my trip to show you guys and I will be dividing them into many blog posts. Unlike blog  post chains before, I obviously can't put a link of ever blog post on every single blog post, so instead, I will do the same thing I did for my Yellowstone National Park photos before, by sticking a link of the Next and Previous post on each blog post instead.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best work from Death Valley National Park, use this link. To see all of the photos from my Death Valley National Park trip use this link.

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Today I continue with the photos from Artist Drive and Artists Palette. Today, I also have a day time shot of where I saw the potential UFO. I actually did not notice I shot a  photo in the same place until I got home and started looking through my photos. How weird is that! Pretty much as I saw the photo, I was like, this photo looks similar to something I saw before. So after some comparison of the photo I shot the night before, I knew it was the same place. If you missed the blog post where I talked about my possible UFO sighting, you can view it here. Also, here is my intro to Artists Palette again for those of you who missed it. Artists Palette is famous for its colorful rocks caused by chemical reactions of the mineral rich soil. Definitely visit the area as the scenery is very beautiful and you don't really have to hike a lot. To get there, you take Artist Drive, which is a one way paved road. For the next few days, I will be showing you photos from Artist Drive (road leading to Artists Palette) and from Artists Palette itself.

Scenery

Artist Drive. One-way road through Artists Palette. 

There are 2 dips like these on the road. Note that my camera is leveled. Pretty much you have to drive down and then up. It was actually pretty fun to drive on.

A sign alerting you of the dip. 

2 cars driving through the dip. 

A closer shot of the dip.

HDR composition of the side of the dip. If you are wondering why there are two dips in the road, it seems that before Death Valley became a desert, the area had 2 rivers or small streams. 

Here is the view from the other side of the dip. From this photo, you can see clearly that a small river or stream used to run through the area. 

Another photo of the dry river or stream.

This was the exact spot where I saw the potential UFO the night before. If you missed the blog post where I talked about my possible UFO sighting, you can view it here.

The colorful rocks of Artists Palette. 

Panorama of the colorful rocks at Artists Palette. 

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them! Next time, I will post the last of the photos from Artists Palette and Artist Drive. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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Harmony Borax Works/Mustard Canyon - Death Valley National Park (Part 17)

At the end of November last year (2012), I took a trip to Death Valley National Park. This is the second trip there in my life. The 1st time I went, I was still a little kid, and I didn't start taking photos yet. This time, I have a pro camera and I am ready to shoot the scenery. Death Valley National Park is known for its "out of this world" scenery, UFO sightings, and many other things. The desert is a very mysterious and beautiful place. In this chain of blog posts, I will be showing you mainly photos of Death Valley National Park, but also photos from surrounding areas like The Mojave Desert, Alabama Hills, and Rhyolite Ghost Town. I have picked out over 400 photos from my trip to show you guys and I will be dividing them into many blog posts. Unlike blog  post chains before, I obviously can't put a link of ever blog post on every single blog post, so instead, I will do the same thing I did for my Yellowstone National Park photos before, by sticking a link of the Next and Previous post on each blog post instead.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best work from Death Valley National Park, use this link. To see all of the photos from my Death Valley National Park trip use this link.

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Message from the Photographer: So I have shown you all my San Francisco Chinese New Year parade photos. This means I will continue on with Death Valley National Park. I hope you enjoy viewing the photos. :)

Today, I have photos from Harmony Borax Works and Mustard Canyon. In history, this is where people mined borax and made them into products for the general public. It was a very booming business back then, but now it is just preserved ruins for everyone to see in Death Valley National Park. I hope you enjoy.

Far off in the distance is Mustard Canyon. I think it was given the name due to the yellow color. 

Harmony Borax Works. This is the ruins of the processing plant and horse drawn carriage. 

Here is a sign talking about borax being "White Gold". 

The view of the desert from Harmony Borax Works. Looks like there used to be a stream of water there. There are many water features like this in Death Valley National Park. Dry waterfalls, streams, and dried lake beds are commonly seen throughout the whole park. From the looks, Death Valley National Park used to be a giant lake, but due to changing climates, it is now desert.

The mule drawn carts. 

Sign talking about the Twenty Mule Teams. 

Ruins of the processing plant. 

Panorama with Mustard Canyon off in the distance.

Panorama with processing plant at the left and Mustard Canyon at the right. 

Another view of the desert. 

Ruins of the processing plant.

Now I begin the drive on the dirt road into Mustard Canyon. The silver thing you see on the bottom was the mirror on my car. 

Death Valley Travel Tip: If you do want to visit Mustard Canyon in Death Valley National Park, 4-wheel drive is recommended. The dirt road was okay, but there were a few steep parts. Also, high clearance Jeeps are available for rent at Furnace Creek. If you want to go to the Racetrack, or some other high clearance roads, you would definitely need one of those. Here at Mustard Canyon, the road conditions are okay, so it is only 4-wheel drive recommended (they tell you on the map). 

View of the desert and partially of the dirt road on the right. 

Inside Mustard Canyon on the dirt road. 

Another shot of Mustard Canyon. Not sure how this almost the same image got caught in the photos I was going to upload. Usually catch things like this on my 2nd look through. Anyways, here is another shot for you guys. 

HDR of Mustard Canyon

This is all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Next time, I will have photos from the Furnace Creek Visitor Center and Museum! Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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