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Customary trip-start photograph. Loading up the sloth bear of all vehicles, a Chevy Astro AWD.
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The last chance range, as seen looking south from the sand dunes, close to sunset. The road snakes between the mountain and the dunes.
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The Greater Dunes. That's a name I just made up, so don't quote it to National Geographic. Surprisingly, the shape of the largest dunes have remained similar to what I saw 3 years back.
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Cracked earth, close to the dunes. Back home in India, I could have taken this shot in my garden. Here, I have to fly 2500+ miles to take a look at good cracked earth.
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Zabriskie point, sunrise. TerraGalleria.com calls this "manly beacon" - I'm not sure if that's something they made up, or this is called so.
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Zabriskie point, sunrise. That should be Telescope Peak in the distance. In between the near peaks and the far peaks is the valley floor - badwater and surrounding areas.
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View to the left, Zabriskie point, sunrise.
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The newlyweds get special photo-op privileges. Sunrise, Zabriskie point.
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This is what Dante looked at, and thought, "This is awesome. Everyone coming to Death Valley should see this". It *is* pretty awesome, but be wary of cold winds. Telescope peak in the distance. This is probably the only place having such a huge view all across the park.
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A short walk from Dante's view parking lot is this viewpoint that probes into the valley. All the ranges run sort-of parallel to each other, and disappear in the valley, hence the impression of "Army of Caterpillars".
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This is what Laurence of Arabia would probably look like, if he owned the entire Devil's Golfcourse. Do I really need to mention again that Telescope peak is in the distance?
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Salt. Devil's golfcourse. There's nothing soft and subtle about anything in Death Valley. Try sitting on one of these rocks and you'll understand what I mean.
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Amrita and Snigdha at the Devil's Golfcourse.
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Natural arch.
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Natural arch.
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Vinay, Snigdha and Amrita at the natural arch.
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More of the natural arch.
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Adam and Amrita at the natural arch.
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Badwater. It's really bad at this time of the year. If I were you, I'd take a look from the car and skip the stop.
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Snigdha, Amrita and Adam sitting pretty at the Artists' Palette.
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Artists Palette, with Bikram's head. In the US, unless there's a sign saying such-and-such is a tourist spot, no one would probably take a look at it. Hence the board with the irregular writing.
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Close look at the artists' palette.
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The Ubehebe crater - a huge hole in the ground created by steam generated from hot lava falling into a lake, or something. Somewhat difficult to reproduce in pictures.
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Though it's Adam most of the time, the look in Amrita's eyes right now is the entire Ubehebe Crater.
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Adam, Amrita, Ubehebe Creater. Talk about proportions.
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Amrita trying to sell off the Ubehebe crater to real estate brokers in NYC.
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Around the campfire, with a nice cold drink. Furnace creek campground.
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The sky lightens up around the campground close to sunrise.
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Adam is thinking whether he should use Macro Mode to take a picture of the tents and the sunrise.
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Sand dunes. Total pro shot. You should be reaching out for your wallet just for seeing this.
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Snigdha at the dunes. Another pro shot. Did I give you my PayPal account information?
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Snigdha at the dunes. Sunrise.
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Just after sunrise, sand dunes. These are the eastern dunes.
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Looking west from the eastern end of the dunes.
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Looking south west, we see the southern dunes, the road, and the Last Chance range.
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Snigdha and Vinay decide to recharge while there's still time.
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Sand dunes, near sunrise.
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Vinay's headshot. Not really a feature of the Death Valley National Park, except that he is looking east into the sunrise from the dunes.
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Thinking whether he should say "Up, Up and Away!", or just hit the Furnace Creek Ranch for breakfast buffet.
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Road, Death Valley. You can drive rocket powered cars on this, I think. I have a feeling all my New York State tax money goes to build roads in Death Valley instead of NYC. If you are squinting at the sign, it says straight ahead are Stovepipe Wells, Olancha, and Lone Pines.
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