Day 182 - Furnace Creek and Zabriskie Point

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

Our hotel at Furnace Creek

I'm soooo tired.  Up at 3:30 this morning, in the car at 4:15 to drive to BWI.  Flight at 7 a.m.  Smooth ride to Las Vegas.  Met group at 10:30 a.m.  Drove halfway to Death Valley and ate lunch at a great Mexican restaurant.  Did grocery shopping for essentials:  wine, fruit, granola bars.  Continued to Death Valley.

178 feet below sea level!

Arrived at Furnace Creek Ranch around 4:00.  4:00 - 4:10, unpacked.  4:10 - 4:30, walked around ranch.  4:40, left for Zabriskie Point.  Got there about 15 minutes before the sun set behind the hills.  Wind was fierce -- 50+ mph gusts.  Cameras and tripods were blowing over and hitting the ground (not mine).  Came back to ranch to debrief, review itinerary, etc.  Group left for dinner.  I am blogging.

Keep in mind, as I write this, it is 8:00 here, but 11:00 on my watch.  So, I will post this before midnight, but maybe not before your midnight.

Zabriskie Point

The landscape here is awesome and awe-inspiring.  I have never seen anything like it.  There are flat, scrubby places, and then huge mountains jutting straight out of the ground.  There are rock formations that look like soft, bunched fabric.  The colors are amazing.  It is so beautiful and wondrous that I said to someone in my group that if the only photos I got were the ones I took tonight at Zabriskie Point and then we left, it would have been worth the time and the money it took to get here.  I would be happy.  But there will be more, I promise.

Zabriskie Sunset

Opposite Zabriskie Point

Yesterday, I was at George Washington's home.  Today I am in Death Valley.  It would have taken George Washington weeks or months to get here, with so much hardship along the way.  It took me a few hours.   We live in a marvelous time and a beautiful country.  I wish George Washington had been able to see what I have seen today, to know what lay beyond those Blue Ridge Mountains.  He would have been as awestruck as I am, I'm sure.

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Visit my photography show, "My Maryland," at the public library in Urbana, Maryland, on the lower level of the building.  It is there until the end of April.

Hurricane Sandy Relief: Donate to the Red Cross, and I will mail you a 5 x 7 print from any of the photos I have posted on my blog OR any photo on my website.

Forward to me via email a receipt for donating to the Red Cross. Tell me whether the photo is from the blog or the website, and Include its title along with a mailing address. The name on the receipt to the Red Cross must match the name of the mailing recipient. Send the receipt and the photo request to camscamerashots@gmail.com.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

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Visit my web site: camscamerashots.zenfolio.com
Follow me on Twitter: @camscamerashots
Email:  cam.miller@comcast.net

Cam's rules for the Daily Photo Walk:

1. walk every day
2. the walk must be in addition to any other planned activity for the day
3. post a photo every day
4. use my Nikon P7100 (it is a very convenient size and weight)
5. no weather excuses
6. walk only where it is safe to do so