Photograph: Dunes, Mesquite Flat, Sunrise - Death Valley National Park

Dunes, Mesquite Flat, Sunrise

Posted on 21 April 2011

Mesquite Flat Dunes, Sunrise

Early morning light striking minor dunes on Mesquite Flat with Cottonwood Mountains wash and the Last Chance Range in the distance, Death Valley National Park.

These dunes are not too far from the main Mesquite Dunes near Stovepipe Wells – they are a bit further east from the better known tallest section of the dunes. The areas of lower dunes provide some very interesting shapes and textures on a smaller scale in some ways that those of the larger dunes. I photographed these with a long lens, shooting from a rise, at a point in time very shortly after the first morning light had struck the sand. The background hills, part of a very large alluvial fan at the base of the Cottonwood Mountains, were in the shadow of a cloud.

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Category: Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California
Tags: california, chance, cottonwood, curve, dawn, death, desert, distance, dunes, early, first, landscape, last, light, mesquite, minor, morning, mountains, national, nature, north america, park, photo, photography, range, rise, sand, scenic, shadow, shape, soft, spring, stock, sun, transverse, travel, upper, usa, valley, wash

4 comments to Dunes, Mesquite Flat, Sunrise

michael

says:

April 21, 2011 at 5:36 am

Beautiful image Dan. I like the color contrast between the green bushes and the sunlight sands.

G Dan Mitchell

says:

April 21, 2011 at 8:53 am

Thanks, Michael. That first light to hit the dunes was wonderful, especially because it was against the backdrop of the much cooler blue-toned light of the shaded mountains beyond.

Dan