Roadtrip Images

The Badwater Basin mud flats are just up the road from the salt flats. Roughly opposite of Golden Canyon. They are not as heavily visited as the salt flats as there is no defined parking area nor are they called out in the Park literature. It doesn’t rain much in Death Valley but when it does they tend to get flash floods. The run off comes down from the mountains and flows out onto the flats carrying the sediment and rocks with it. When it starts to dry, it forms these cracks.

It’s a pretty easy hike to get out to where the really deeply cracked sections are. Just follow the washes that flow westerly from Badwater Road. These are not really mud any more, they are more like baked clay or pottery. The scorching summer sun probably cooks them quite well. Surface temperatures in the summer can reach 200° F.

There are so many patterns you can get lost looking for just the right lines. I happened to find this flow that leads into the photograph with a nice curve. Although I took many images of the different patterns I kept coming back to this scene. We were fortunate that the sky cooperated and gave us some good color.

The photograph was pretty straightforward to make. No multiple image blending going on here. Just a pleasant evening in Death Valley enjoying the scenery.