It’s tax season (Ap 15th) and time to explore America’s West! The Utah Badlands (Located near the town of Hanksville about 1 hour Southwest of Moab) offers some of America’s most badass ops for drone photography.
The spire shown below is hilariously known to locals at Long Dong Silver (Shot about 30 minutes before sunset).
Sunrise a great time to view the “Moon Overlook”. Honestly, it looks more like Mars to me.
About 7 miles away are the Bentonite Hills, formed from mud, sand and volcanic ash and created over 140 million years ago during the Jurassic period.
Another prominent feature of the area is Factory Butte shown under the Milky Way at 5am. I waited around till dawn to get the soft blue light that illuminated the foreground in the image below.
Ok, I need to keep moving. No rest for the weary. Next stop; Zion National Park and a view on route to my fav hike there, Angels Landing.
Shown below is the Milky Way arching across Zion’s night sky (4:30am). The rock walls are illuminated by the dim light of nearby Springdale, Utah.
Several days later I arrive in Death Valley which lies about 90 minutes West of Las Vegas. Yup that’s me disappearing into the sand dunes. Goodby cruel world.
This year the National Park was hit with unusual torrential rains, a once in a decade event. The result? Parts of the park which are normally dried clay now are carpeted with yellow Sunflowers.
In fact some areas have received so much water that they are now shallow lakes. Badwater Basin, normally looks like this!
Check out the difference now that it’s full of water. This pano shot taken at 2:30am features the Milky Way reflected in the mirror like water, now called Lake Manly.
Speaking of the Milky Way, nothing beats exploring a sand dune in the dark when you can’t see where you’re going. I have a few screws loose.
Final stop is the Alabama Hills, home to hundreds of Westerns that were filmed on location in eras past (located at the foot of Mt Whitney-shown below).
Below is the Cyclops Skull Arch framing the same Mt Whitney.
If you’d like to see my entire gallery of photos click the link below!
https://www.snitzerphotos.com/Other/Galleries/Death-valley-hanksville-alabama-hills/n-r9dm5M
