Today I got up around 6 a.m. for the sunrise shot at South Toufa, at Mono Lake. It was a pretty cool place but not as cool (at sunrise) as the curator had led me to believe. Perhaps I was just there on an off day. But I was already up (and freezing, Mono lake is at 6,000 ft) so I shot a few pictures and they drove into Bishop, the nearest big city, for breakfast and to plan the rest of the day. On the way to Bishop I stopped by a place call the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine. This is a small area where many classic westerns were filmed.

What I planned next was to  head off to Death Valley. I figured now that I was headed into the desert I might as well start with the really hot stuff. From where I was, I should be able to get there around 4 p.m., planning for the usual side trip along the way.

But it's a dry heat

I made it to the valley around 4:30 and it was still around 120 degrees. Getting out of the car was a pretty sharp shock. It wasn't so much the heat of the air, you could stand in the shade and it would be bearable (I grew up where it sometimes got nearly that hot). But standing in the direct light of the sun was unbelievably hot. The heat radiated by the sun here is just beyond what I even imagined and I had been a imagining a lot. I was a little worried about going here is the middle of August, like you properly should be when you travel to a place with the name "Death" in its title. It's typically above 120 (Fahrenheit) around here this time of year, but the surface temperature of rocks and stuff can reach 200 degrees! I can not even imagine traveling by wagon through this area like they used to do a 100 or so years ago.

Taking a picture here is quite challenging, the challenge being trying to take a picture with a camera that typically takes 45 minutes to set up and get the shot when the sun is blazing above. I knew this just wasn't going to be possible here with this heat. I ended up finding a way to work around this. I would set up as much as possible in the car while the air conditioning was running and then make a mad dash outside to do the final setup and get the shot. It ended up not being so bad. Focusing in general was the easiest because the focusing cloth I use is white on the outside. As long as I was under there, I was protected and could stay out for an extended time. In the end I did get 4-5 pictures before the sun went down. This is truly the land of "if the picture's not 10 ft from the car then it's not worth taking."

At the end of the day I drove through to the middle of the valley and found a place to stay. People do live here, there are 2-3 little towns. The place I am staying is a 1922 resort hotel. I am surrounded by palm trees, real living grass, and artificial water features. It reminds me a lot of what you see in movies when a Palm Springs resort is portrayed. It's a really cool place and a really nice hotel. Overall I think I like the place more than the St. Francis in San Francisco.

Besides the heat and the cool hotel, the most remarkable thing here is the valley itself. I had no idea that this place was as beautiful as it is. I was completely blown away. It's far from a desolate desert and not at all like I expected. I think it is really up there, right along with Yosemite as one of the great national parks. The surrounding mountains are like nothing I've ever seen. And the desert itself is equally impressive. At sunset here, the shadows cast in the mountains here are other-worldly. I could easily spent a week here taking pictures, although I think I'll come back next time in the winter when the sun is still blazing and bright but when its a comfortable 70 degrees (about as cool as it gets in the day time here in winter).