Schlafendes Tal
Dormant valley. The extreme temperature differences of Death Valley are at a minimum during the hour before sunrise. Only calm winds blow and the heat is almost comfortable. Deep silence and a magical light spreads over the valley. Badlands consist of hardened mud with a high fraction of clay making the intrusion of water almost impossible. In this region rainfall usually occurs during short but intense thunderstorms. This rainfall erosion creates the badlands structure. Vegetation merely exists on this barren ground. At the end of the last ice age this area was covered by Lake Manly. Today only a small hyper saline salt lake is left.
August 2006
Canon 20D, EF-L 24-105mm, f/22, 8sec, ISO 100, tripod