Nature – Page 12 – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 22 – Sunset Shoot

This is a continuation of a multiple part blog of a sunset shoot in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

The rock features in Valley of Fire take on different looks as one moves around, viewing these from various positions.

To Reach the Gold, One Must Overcome the Obstacles

The Funnel is my name for this location. The rock texture just seems to “funnel” one into the scene.

Light tops off the distant rocks like a sweet, golden frosting on a multilayered cake, with a dollop of whipped cream on the edge.

Everything in this image is in the previous one, but less. I moved in to reduce the scope of the image, then cropped in more in post processing to make the sky more prominent and emphasize the large rock feature at the bottom right, which was in the bottom left of the previous image. I think this makes the scene more dramatic, but that is in the eye of the beholder.

Evening sky flows and glows over Valley of Fire, Nevada, highlighting some features and casting others into deepening shadows.

This wraps up this sunset shoot, but there will be another.

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 21 – Sunset Shoot

This is a continuation of a multiple part blog of a sunset shoot in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

In Part 20 of this blog, I included a similar photo made by standing closer to the big rock in the foreground. I think that image is more dramatic, but I backed up to included the little bush at the bottom left in this image to add a bit of “life” in the image.

It is the “rainy” season here and there is new greenery softening the hard rock desert.

Occasional small ponds give evidence of recent rains in this soon to be baking landscape.

Pathway – Muted footprints of previous visitors in the sand

To be continued,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 17 – Return from the Fire Wave

On our hike back to the parking lot, we took an obvious route towards a large feature that we had hiked past on our way in. This route went alongside the rock outcrop from which the Fire Wave is formed.

That large rock feature towards which this outcrop points, is our destination for joining up with the official trail back to the parking lot.

Early morning shadow and light seem to be divided by the meeting of two different rock formations. The meeting of these two different rock deposits forms a low area, where sand accumulates and desert vegetation takes root.

I noted many small pebbles accumulated in the ridges of this rock outcrop. Initially, I thought maybe tourist were tossing these into the grooves, but now I think it is a natural accumulation. Maybe strong winds blow the pebbles along the rock face until the pebbles drop into a place that is somewhat protected from the wind.

That’s all for this hike and early morning shoot,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 15 – Sunset Shoot

This is a continuation of a sunset shoot in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

This concludes the sunset shoot on this day.

Until next time,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 14 – Sunset Shoot

This is a continuation of a sunset shoot in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

To be continued,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 13 – Sunset Shoot

Photos from another sunset shoot in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada. The day after the storm at sunset, we returned to the same area for another photo shoot. Some of the photos in this post are similar to the evening prior, but with different lighting and sky

To be continued,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 12 – Sunset Shoot

There was a late day storm on the eastern horizon during this cloudy, sunset shoot. Such desert storms contribute to the slow, but certain evolution of the rock features found here. These are a few of those images.

I made many images, capturing the changes in the sky as the storm and the late day lighting progressed.

I hope the similarity of these images is not boring to the reader. It was fascinating to see how the sky changed with the storm’s advanced across the landscape and the subtle changes in the light on the landscape.

Until next time,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 11

After a morning shoot, my son and I decided to take a short hike in another part of the park, before. the crowds of tourists began to get out and about.

It is not surprising that this area is a popular one in which to film portions of western movies. The image above is of the remains of one of those movie sets.

A portion of our early morning hike went through a slot type canyon. The many footprints in the sand indicates the number of people that have recently hiked this way.

That’s all for now.

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 10

It was a cloudy, overcast morning for this outing in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

I’m always amazed at how some desert shrubs can survive with very little in the way of actual soil in which to put down roots.

A narrow wash with an apparent dead end, but is it the end of this canyon in the making or is this wash continuing to grow into a canyon? I suspect erosion will continue at a very slow rate and this short, shallow wash will grow into a deeper and longer canyon over a geologic time interval.

This was supposed to be a sunrise shoot, but as one can see there was little sunshine early this morning.

Stay tuned for more of Valley of Fire,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 9

More hiking and scouting photos in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

This simple photo was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page (April 13, 2023) and as of this writing has garnered 6801 views and 237 faves.

The rock layers upon which these couples are walking is the feature that forms the well know “Fire Wave” feature in this park.

Stay tuned for even more Valley of Fire and desert photography,

Ken

Category: Nature

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 22 – Sunset Shoot

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Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 21 – Sunset Shoot

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Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 17 – Return from the Fire Wave

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Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 10

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Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 9

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