It was the morning after the night before and I was late getting up and out of the hotel. There was still nine hours before the start of the workshop and I didn't have James or Mike setting the pace.
My goal for that morning was to drive the Titus Canyon Road and possibly squeeze in a visit to Darwin Falls and be back at Stovepipe Wells for 3:00 pm. It was dark as I headed out but the stack of cars lined up by the dunes told me I'd slept too long.
But as I turned onto the Beatty Road that runs through Mud Canyon in the Kit Fox Hills I suspected there might be an image looking back across the Devils Cornfield (why no apostrophe between the l and the s?) as the rays of sunlight crept over Tucki mountain. And so I pulled off the road and hiked about a half-mile to gain an unobstructed view.
This image is an HDR from the last sequence I shot where the suns rays were reaching right across the scree of the foothills. I know the color is not realistic but I really enjoyed pushing this one through the post process since the original RAW images are very dull and flat.
The change in elevation here from the valley floor to the highest point is probably about 4,600 feet as I suspect the true peak of Tucki mountain (at 5,889 feet) is hidden given my location was a shade under 300 feet).
I was drawn to the streams of scree tumbling from the canyon on the left and on the right. Calm and quiet on this rainless day, it's clear from this image how much force is in play to carve all this material out from the mountains and flow it down to the valley. No wonder the Park Rangers caution you about the speed and power of flash floods and the need to stay away from the canyons when rain is forecast in the surrounding hills.
