Framedlight

We had left the rather grim, just a car park really, Stovepipe Wells campsite after our one night there and had visited the Mesquite Flat dunes for dawn. So what next for this first Sunday in November? Why not Scotty's Castle! Just about an hours journey away. Perfect timing. This extraordinary edifice was built by Albert Johnson, a wealthy businessman from Chicago who had visited Death Valley as the result of a hoax. The perpetrator was one Walter E Scott or 'Death Valley Scotty' a rather unsuccessful prospector who hit on the idea that, as no investor from the north ever came down to check out a mine, why not make one up. This he did and with the 'mine' and several publicity stunts he hit the headlines and was feted throughout the US. Albert Johnson, who had been crippled from a back injury since youth, always wanted to be a cowboy so thought he would check out his investment in the wild west. He found no mine, and in fact Scotty staged a highway robbery to disc...

We had now been away for half our holiday time. I do not like it when you are counting down to the end of the holiday rather than counting up. It was Sunday and another 5.30am start as we took the car to the 'parking lot' at the Mesquite dunes. It was still dark when we got there and we spent some time bumbling about at the edge of the dunes trying to get our bearings as the sun came up. I set the tripod down to face the Panamint range of hills to our west with the highest point of Telescope Peak rising to over 11,000ft. The storm the previous evening had deposited a layer of snow over the tops, and the peaks looked good against the reddening sky with the sand bleached white by the early dawn light. In the easterly direction lay the Amargosa range. There was a high dune jutting out in front of the mountains. As I took photographs in this direction a group of about 10 people struck out in front of me and proceeded to ascend the dune and sit around the top to fac...

The white fluffy clouds that had been present all day started to accumulate over the mountains surrounding Death Valley and blackened into proper storm clouds which we could see were depositing snow over the higher peaks. I felt very privileged to experience these conditions. We drove the short distance to Mesquite Flat and walked into the dunes. Fortunately we were a little out of season and there were not too may footprints over them. As the sun started to set we moved over the other side of the road to the Devil's Cornfield to capture some evening photos. As I photographed Mairi ran back to the campsite for the exercise and I met her there when I had finished, for tea and bed.