Lynn WiezyckiArtists Drive is a side road off the main road through Death Valley, CA. The road goes through a valley that is surrounded by colorful hills & mountains! The main pull off is called Artist’s Palette. This is a photographers dream location! Colors were everywhere!
Here is some geology from Wikipedia:
“Artist’s Drive rises up to the top of an alluvial fan fed by a deep canyon cut into the Black Mountains. Artist’s Palette is an area on the face of the Black Mountains noted for a variety of rock colors. These colors are caused by the oxidation of different metals (iron compounds produce red, pink and yellow, decomposition of tuff-derived mica produces green, and manganese produces purple).
Called the Artist Drive Formation, the rock unit provides evidence for one of the Death Valley area’s most violently explosive volcanic periods. The Miocene-aged formation is made up of cemented gravel, playa deposits, and volcanic debris, perhaps 5,000 feet (1500 m) thick. Chemical weathering and hydrothermal alteration cause the oxidation and other chemical reactions that produce the variety of colors displayed in the Artist Drive Formation and nearby exposures of the Furnace Creek Formation.”
We drove through Artists Drive late in the day so the colors were intensified by the late day sunlight. As the sun went down we tried to get to a point where we could shoot while it was going behind the mountains and it lit up the few clouds that were still around!
While in Death Valley, CA be sure to check out Artists Drive!
To see these images and more from Death Valley please check out this Gallery and Death Valley!
That is all for now!
Lynn
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