Death Valley: Lake Manly, (Super?) Bloom, A Few Other Things
In late February we returned to Death Valley. We had been there at the end of December, when conditions suggested that a return visit later in winter would be worthwhile.
We focused on two subjects on the return trip: Lake Manly and the wildflower bloom. As a friend pointed out: The main show in DEVA at this point featured (and likely still features) those two subjects. Both are transitory, so other things could wait for later. This meant that we mostly passed on the usual subjects like sand dunes and canyons. (We didn't ignore them entirely, and I'll include a few at the end.)
A lot of pictures, I know — but I figured I'd just put them all in a single thread.
I'll start with Lake Manly. It is an ephemeral lake that forms in Badwater Basin in years of heavier rainfall. The lake was still fairly large, though it is shrinking. We photographed in early light, arriving before sunrise. It was cloudy, so rather than colorful dawn light we had a sort of subtle "blue hour" light to work with for the most part — but the clouds themselves were a fine compensation.
Then there were the wildflowers. I can't say if this is a true "super bloom" (and the definitions seem subjective), but the bloom was definitely super. The most obvious show came from desert gold flowers, in many places growing in great fields of yellow on gravel fans and hills. There were also obvious patches of purple phacelia and areas with lots of sand verbena. And everywhere there were loads of tiny flowers underfoot where they were easy to miss.
We did photograph some other things while we were there, including one quick foray into Mesquite Dunes on the morning of our departure. (It was a cloudy sunrise, so we worked with soft light and largely ended up photographing... more plants!)
