NAD's Death Valley photographs, if anyone is interested

[NAD]

Unfortunately to get these on a CD-ROM I had to use Kodak's gay as fuck PerfectTouch bullshit so these turned out a little brighter than they really should be, and the dumb bastards lost my one roll of film with some kickass shots of the moon.

I'll have some grim forest pics next time. :Spin:

 

[JayKeeley]

Wow man, those are excellent. I can't believe they lost an entire roll of film. Morons.

You know, I have some old pictures of Mount Sinai (from that trip to Egypt I took that has haunted my passport ever since ), I'll see if I can scan them in at some point. I tell ya, Sinai looks like the surface of Mars.

Best thing about the desert though is night IMO. Just when it's so clear that you can see shooting stars. I was surprised at just how many shooting stars there are up in the sky - every few seconds. (Having said that - this was Egypt, so they could have been Scuds).

 

[NAD]

Thanks, and yeah, Kodak is stupid. I get el cheapo Target processing 99% of the time and never have had a problem. Oh well, we'll see if it turns up eventually.

I'd love to see those pics, almost as much as I'd love to see Egypt in person.

I was born and raised in the desert, where clear skies are a normal thing, even in Southern California, but I had never seen more stars than I did up in Death Valley. It was staggering.

 

[JayKeeley]

NAD - Egypt is extraordinary. I'll start a thread about it one day, once I scan in some of those pictures.

EDIT: Which Empyrium you listening to?

 

[NAD]

I'm kind of delaying my Egypt trip for a few years since I'm American and extraordinarily white, although the world seems to be hating us a bit less as of late. I also haven't been watching the news much lately so I could be way off.

Songs of Moors and Misty Fields is spinning right now, and Weiland is in my truck.

EDIT: That reminds me, David Bowie played his song I'm Afraid of Americans last night in Los Angeles and the crowd went nuts. Great show, I can't believe his voice is still that strong at 57.

 

[Reign in Acai]

Re-Up?

 

[NAD]

I think 2004 was my first trip to Death Valley? Those photos are likely long gone...or buried on a CD somewhere. I have made the pilgrimage 5 times now, just returned from our last journey a few weeks ago. Here are some shots from the dead of winter, 2014:

 

[Tide In Mind Out]

I wanna go see the butt-scooting rocks.

 

[rms]

Is that bloom gone?

 

[NAD]

I wanna go see the butt-scooting rocks.

They are the best! I've gone to the Race Track twice now, and it is truly something special.

Is that bloom gone?

It was on its way out when we were there, but still pretty impressive. Ye olde wife took pictures of those, I'll post some later.

For now the obligatory Teakettle Junction Smiling Monkey(s) picture, from a few weeks ago. Next trip we will contribute an old kettle to the collection:

And then of course the actual thing + beast of burden. I don't know how people take regular cars out there. Well, the how doesn't happen really. They try, fail, and then get saved by friendly desert denizens such as myself.

 

[NAD]

Looking through photos I'm finding some other junk to share. I'll co-opt my 12-year-old thread and just put random photographic evidence of nature excursions herein. These are from the Mojave Preserve in January 2016, this is an extraordinarily desolate land about 100 miles southeast of Death Valley.

Not really a mountain, but rather a pile of lava rock. There was a lot of this out there.

I like the high desert because it gets fucking cold, at least by California standards.

The wife attempting to impersonate a lava rock.

The biggest Joshua Tree I've ever seen. Sure, pretty small for a tree, but usually these things are much smaller.

All that remains of the Mojave Phone Booth, just a jumper wire from the utility pole.

 

[NAD]

Every time we get lost on purpose I realize the true meaning of this song, because clearly it is in reference to falling off a cliff in the middle of nowhere... whilst donning one's hiking boots.

 

[Reign in Acai]

Looks gnarly.

 

[Reign in Acai]

Adrian, have you ever checked out any national parks in Utah? I didn't realize Zion was so damn close to us. Just a wee two hour drive past Vegas.

 

[NAD]

I have! Been to Zion some years ago, and I want to see Arches some day. Zion was pretty amazing, but mostly flooded with people. The hiking trails less so. I'll explore further in the Jeep someday, life is far better far away from humans.

Utah is hilarious. You have the Mormon thing obviously, but there is a huge contingent of folk that are NOT MORMON and they love to remind everyone of that. Competing billboards everywhere, you'll see temple ads next to porn shop signs ("hey, we're not all puritans") and craft beer is a bit of a thing.

We visited Salt Lake City on that trip as well, and that was a pure gem. It smelled weird, but many great things were found therein. Went to the Great Salt Lake Temple because, well, I had to see it. Everywhere you go, they have nubile women paired up in twosomes, circling the grounds, and running up to any male present to wink and smile and "educate" whomever would listen. The duos were always of alternating looks, tall blonde with short brunette, skinny black with curvy Asian, etc. Smoking hot the lot of them, they'd only speak to males, and would ignore all female visitors. It happened once and I giggled, but the wife and I sat there observing this for about an hour, and it was pretty consistently amazing.

 

[rms]

I went to Zion last summer and spent a few days on a houseboat at Lake Powell, Utah is pretty rad. Shit place to drive though. Zion was packed, but I did the 5am hike up Angel's Landing and it was me and 5 other dudes.

 

[Reign in Acai]

Primarily drawn towards this polygamist paradise for the Narrows.