“I don’t see the desert as barren at all; I see it as full and ripe. It doesn’t need to be flattered with rain. It certainly needs rain, but it does with what it has, and creates amazing beauty.”
— Joy Harjo

Death Valley is known as the land of extremes. The lowest and driest place in North America, and the hottest place on the planet. Our trip began like many to the American Southwest do, in another place of extremes- Las Vegas. After a lovely dinner, we rested for what would be a busy and fruitful week of photography.

We headed out first thing in the morning and made our two-ish hour journey to the town of Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park.  The Mojave Desert, where the name “Death Valley,” and others like “Badwater Basin,” “Furnace Creek,” and “Devil’s Hole,” certainly don’t paint a picture of vibrancy and photo worthy subjects, yet it became apparent that this would not be the case just 20 minutes into our drive with Joshua Trees and a snowy Mt Charleston to photograph just outside of Las Vegas.

As we ventured on, we photographed stunning desert mountainscapes along with our first signs of life, natural, manmade, and even “supernatural,” if you will.

Just as we entered the national park boundary, we pulled off to get some photos of the famous Death Valley Mud cracks.

We then grabbed some lunch and went to the visitor center before checking in at our beautiful lodging for the next few days at The Ranch in the Oasis of Furnace Creek. We settled into our rooms before heading out for pre- sunset on Artist’s Drive which led us to our first sunset at Artist’s Palette.

In the morning, we headed to the classic Zabriskie point, a stunning location, popular for good reason.

We followed up Zabriskie point with another Death Valley classic, the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, where we experienced sunset, and the following sunrise. These dunes are named for the mesquite tree, which thrives in this arid environment. The Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes are also famous for being the location where R2D2 and C-3PO landed in their escape pod after fleeing Darth Vader in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. This was actually our third location on the trip that followed in the steps of the Star Wars franchise. Two other scenes in A New Hope were filmed by Artists Palette, and another in Golden Canyon, where we shot after our sunrise at Zabriskie point.

After a satisfying breakfast, we made our way to yet another beautiful canyon, then had a well-deserved break. We fueled up for a busy afternoon in Furnace Creek and then made our way over to Harmony Borax Works. “After borax was found near Furnace Creek Ranch (then called Greenland) in 1881, William T. Coleman built the Harmony plant and began to process ore in late 1883 or early 1884. When in full operation, the Harmony Borax Works employed 40 men who produced three tons of borax daily. Getting the finished product to market from the heart of Death Valley was a difficult task, and an efficient method had to be devised. The Harmony operation became famous through the use of large mule teams and double wagons which hauled borax the long overland route to Mojave.The romantic image of the “20-mule team” persists to this day and has become the symbol of the borax industry in this country.” (National Park Service).

We left harmony Borax Works and ventured lower and lower, until we made it to the lowest point in North America, Badwater Basin. Badwater Basin sits 282 feet below sea level and is known for its otherworldly salt flats that cover nearly 200 sq miles.

On our final morning in Death Valley National Park, we made our way up to Dante’s View, a classic viewpoint where “Land of Extremes” is truly epitomized. Here, you see first light on Telescope Peak. Telescope is over 11,000 feet tall and was dusted with snow. It is directly above the barren salt flats of Badwater Basin.

After Dante’s View, we drove through 20 Mule Canyon. We fought through some wind, but it was well worth our while as we were all truly shooting away at each vantage point on this stunning winding road where the 20 Mule teams used to make their way to deliver borax.

“The Mojave is a big desert and a frightening one. It’s as though nature tested a man for endurance and constancy to prove whether he was good enough to get to California.”
— John Steinbeck

We shot our final morning through the drama of a windstorm, and as John Steinbeck claimed, we felt we had proved that we were good enough to exit the Mojave, and venture to The Sierra’s.

The drive out of the mojave towards the Sierra’s is stunning. We had lunch and reflected on the amazing sites we had seen, while not quite realizing how much our jaws would drop as the Sierra’s appeared and we witnessed what our subject would be for the final days of our photo journey.

While we had just been at the lowest, driest, hottest place on the continent- we now had the Eastern Sierra mountains to focus on, with Lone Pine Peak (12,949 feet) and Mount Whitney (14,505 feet) as our primary subjects. Hundreds of Hollywood movies have been filmed in this idyllic location, but we were the lucky first Backcountry Journeys group to photograph here together. We relished in the beauty these mountains provided, and had an incredible final couple days before heading back to our respective homes and lives.