I took a day off of work so that Jude and I could take a (very long) single-day trip to the Mojave Desert and Death Valley to see the “superbloom”. It was amazing. This was Jude’s first time to Death Valley, and I was last there on a Boy Scout camping trip in 1980. The desert landscape is stark and geologic, the earth-tone colors of grey and brown, red, black, and white. I was drawn to the forms of the mountains, many of them striped with volcanic and sedimentary strata. I connected with the landscape much more as a 50 year-old than a 14 year-old.  Jude captured my joy among the rocks and flowers.  In the areas of the superbloom, there is a hazy yellow tint overlay in the washes and alluvial fans. When we got close, we could see that the land was dotted with desert sunflowers, bright fist-sized flowers suspended 2-3 feet above the ground on wiry stems.  We took a break at the Furnace Creek Inn for an espresso. One outlying building burned down last year, but the rest of the inn has a quality of old grandeur, with a bit of The Shining mixed in.  More photos on Flickr: Death Valley Superbloom 2016 |
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