Part one of my Death Valley article ended at the artists palette as the sun was beginning to set. Realising we didn't have many hours of daylight left the outing turned into a trolley-dash of kinds, trying to stop at as many land marks as we could.
While joking about how everything seemed to be named after the devil in the valley we began naming things ourselves. I called this the "menstrual mountains"
We came across the Golden Canyon hike while driving to Death Valleys "finale" views. Mindful of how late it was getting we walked for 30-45 minutes but decided to turn back, missing the Red Cathedral view.
First of the "big views" was Zabriskie point.
If this view looks a little familiar and you've seen The Mandalorian it's not a coincidence! The Arvala-7 landscapes are digitally altered shots of Manly Beacon and Red Cathedral.
This is where the wildfire smoke really started to affect pictures. The above two pics are my own, the one below is from the national parks website. We knew we were missing out but I had no idea what the smoke was covering until researching now. Bummer.
From there we moved onto Dantes View, fully aware that we were about to be very disappointed, but had to attempt it. Maybe we could see somethi-
Nope, nevermind then.
Looking down we could just about make out Badwater basin that we had visited earlier that day.
I would post a comparison picture of what we missed out on but I'll be honest, I'd prefer not to know.
At least it wasn't a totally wasted trip, we got to see some exciting wildlife. This hairy boy was so big that we could see him while driving past.
That was our cue to head home. The next day we would seek out Darwin Falls and we were really hoping it would make up for the disappointment the smoke caused.
Thankfully Darwin falls was brilliant. We struggled to find the car park at first thanks to apple maps expecting us to park up on the highway and scale a mountain (lol). But Google maps got us close enough (but not exactly right either) to find it the old fashioned way.
Greenery? There must be water nearby.
The walk towards the falls was teeming with life. I spotted the largest wild lizard I have ever seen, and spent half my time trying (and failing) to capture pictures of dragonflies.
It was easy to forget that this Oasis was in the Death Valley Park.
Made it!
The path was tricky at times, the vegetation got so thick that it was easier to climb the rocks to the side and bypass the path made by other visitors. It was a very welcome break from the usual "drive thru" tourism we had got used to. We think that also played a part in us being the only people there.
The view facing away from the falls, the red was some kind of moss/algae
Something I found myself doing on this trip was turning away from the main landmark and taking pictures of the view behind. My favourite pictures from my time in America have been ones that took effort to get to. It's something I think people don't do because it kills so much of the wonder, would you be as impressed with a landscape if there was a car park full of people behind the camera?
