Death Valley is the largest national park in the US and one of the most surreal.
Entering the park feels like you have arrived on another planet without having to take a spaceship. As soon as you get into the park, the terrain changes from a barren desert to something otherworldly. It is incredibly vast with eroding million year-old mountains in every direction. The park is filled with extreme high peaks and low points. It's the site of the lowest point in North America, Badwater Basin, which is only a 15 miles from the highest peak in the park, Telescope Peak. This makes for interesting contrasts in tempreature and landscapes. During our stay, Telescope Peak was still snow capped, Dante's View was a cool 70 degrees and filled with wildflowers, while the rest of the park was hot and dry. At night, the park becomes a popular location for star gazing. Since it is so remote from city life and devoid of traffic lights, visitors can enjoy pristine views of the night sky. In fact, Death Valley is also one of only two places in California that belongs to the International Dark Sky Association. To purchase the photography from this trip, visit here.
Dante's View:
Amazing vista that is over 5,000 feet high with sweeping 360 degree views of the park. I highly recommend visiting this exhibit during sunset. Dante's Peak also served as the filming location for Star Wars.
Zabriskie Point:
Amazing primordial rock formations. This is my favorite spot in Death Valley for hiking.
Badwater Basin:
This is the lowest point in North America. The ground is covered in salt crystals that look like snow. It feels like you are on another planet.
Joshua Tree is one of the most spiritual of all the national parks and offers some amazing views. On the way back from Palm Springs Modernism Week, we drove to Joshua Tree to visit Keys View and the Cholla Cactus Garden.
The first stop was the Cholla Cactus Garden, which is a dense field of cactus plants, all about 1-5 feet tall. Although these cacti don't get quite as much attention as the Yucca trees, they are just as magical. The cactus plants appear abruptly off the side of the road and can easily be spotted because of their bright yellow spikes almost glow in the sun. In fact, the fuzzy spikes granted them the nickname, "Teddy Bear Cactus", which sounds cute but can be dangerously prickly. As we traveled up the road a few more feet, the cactus completely disappeared due to the change in elevation. The second stop was Keys View, which is an elevation point of about 5,185 feet and offers stunning views of the desert all the way to the Salton Sea and the San Jacinto Mountains. We made is just in time for sunset. The limited edition photos from this shoot are available for purchase here.
Keys View sunset
If you ever want to experience Mars here on Earth, then you must pay a visit to Utah. The terrain consists of otherworldly landscapes, with red rocks, sweeping barren landscapes, plateaus, hoodoos, arches, and peaks. In fact, the state boasts 5 national parks. On this trip, we visited two of the National Parks: Bryce Canyon and Zion, as well as a National Monument called Cedar Breaks.
To purchase the photography from this trip here Check out the Utah Behind the Scenes Video of ourphoto shoot. Music Credit: Empire of the Sun "Alive" | All videos shot with iPhone 5 | Editing: iMovie Be sure to check out Empire of the Sun's music video filmed in Bryce Canyon. Photography points of Interest: Bryce Canyon National Park (1:18) A large National Park with a canyon filled with eroded rocks that form "hoodoos" which look like chimneys. The park features numerous well paved hiking trails where you can get up close and personal with the hoodoos. From above, the sight is spectacular especially considering that there are very few places in the world where you can view hoodoos, aside from Cappadocia Turkey and Alberta Canada. Bryce Canyon has the most abundant amount of hoodoos in the world.
Zion National Park (0:06)
This park is on the scale of Yosemite, but completely distinct. The park includes towering red peaks named after Biblical figures such as Isaac, Abraham, and Jacob with a river in the canyon called the Virgin River. The park also offers numerous hikes, from the steep and formidable Angels Landing, to the fun and refreshing River Walk through the Narrows. The day we arrived, it was about 100 degrees with thunderstorms, which made for interesting "cloudporn". Cedar Breaks National Monument (0:40) A Geological amphitheater over 10,000 ft in elevation. During the summer, the mountains are filled with wildflowers. |
Published Travel ArticlesWelcome to Run The Atlas!
We are two adventurous young professionals who turned our passion for travel into a blog to help others travel more.
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