The Great Plain

The reason we were told not to slip and fall was because the ground was made of nothing but salt. Many years ago, the entirety of Death Valley was a vast body of water called Lake Manly. Over time, the climate changed and the air in the are got dry and hot. The lake slowly evaporated, leaving behind vast deposits of evaporites, such as salt and borax. This plain was one of the larger chunks of salt that got left over.

Fragile Crystalline Growths

Of course, this wasn’t the craziest thing about the whole place. The absolute craziest thing was that the salt was actually just a giant crust on top of an underground lake. Turned out that the depositing salts had layered over top of the bottom most layer of water, which allowed the lake to remain in this section of the valley, protected by its salt shield. In the heyday of the Valley, people would use dynamite to blast into the mineral rich water below and advertise it as a healthy soak for tourists. Several of the holes have closed up since then, but this one remained for us to marvel at.

The Underground Lake

We eventually left the salt flats, and I was struck once more by just how ridiculously flat the valley could be. There was just nothing there at times.

Stay Flat, Death Valley

Hey, what can I say? I really love the fall colors. And the weather. And most other facets of the season. Heck, I just love fall in general.

Pretty Colors Once More

Erty’s Wee Ninja is actually quite a bit of fun to take pictures of (as he is perfectly aware). It’s incredibly difficult to actually get a shot of something when you’re facing the only source of light, but I think it turned out all right. I prefer the challenge of not doing touch-up work and it just feels more natural to me to capture the moment instead of manipulating it. I’ll never be a great photographer, obviously, but at least it keeps me happy.

Wee Ninja

Honestly, I’m not usually a huge fan of taking pictures of couples. I always feel like I’m intruding on something that I really shouldn’t, but in this case I simply couldn’t resist, and it turned out pretty well. Erty, Greta, I love you guys!

Lover's Embrace

Conserve has a pretty strict policy about not building forts, so what do the cool kids do? Build them anyway of course. This one is coming along nicely; there’s already a good roof structure and the walls are starting to come along. I had nothing to do with any of the construction on this one, but I did help build another one deeper in the woods. Some day I’ll get a shot of that one…some day.

The Hidden Fort

This is the shot I never got to take over the last few years. On campus there’s a neat place to hang out on a lake, and right on the edge of the water there’s a large tree that stands out from the rest and is absolutely perfect for climbing. This is the view from the top of that tree. The lighting was pretty terrible…. I’d like to get up there for sunrise some day. Absolutely breathtaking.

The Climbing Tree