I'll be spending most of the week of March 17 in Death Valley with the following locations chosen for those key light moments.
Sunrises: Zabriskie Pt, Ubehebe Crater, Sand Dunes, Aguereberry Point
Sunsets: Dante's View, Artiste's Palette, Racetrack, Sand Dunes, Badwater
Two questions:
1) Any suggestions on changes (eg sunrise for sunset or vice versa) or additions as I have flexibility in my schedule.
2) I will have GPS with me and try to Geotag my pictures when I return. Does anyone have GPS coordinates (as used in Geocaching) or sources for same for ideal photo hikes or photo locations?
Thanks,
Marv
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Marv:
I just returned from 5 days of trip to the Death Valley NP.
A couple comments based on my experiences:
1. Sunrise/sunset time provided by Furnace Creek Ranch are not reliable, especially the sunset. During 16th and 20th, you should be at the location by 5:45 am for sunrise (for all locations you listed). Sunset varies. At Racetrack, it was 3:45 pm (to shade the crawling rocks), at Dante's View, it was 4:30pm (to shade the salt flat), and Sand dunes was at 4:30 pm. The info from FCR was 5:33 pm for sunset. I saw many people arriving at sunset location too late.
2. Access to Racetrack is good. It is a gravel road and you can drive up to 35-40 mph without any problem. There were many cars on the road (the Presidents' Day holiday) and I saw car with flat tire. Allow up to 3 hours from FC Information Center to Racetrack, depends on your driving speed.
The crawling rocks are located at SW corner of the Racetrack, about 3/4 mile past the Grand Stand.
3. For Dante's View, the southern observation point from parking lot provides better view, looking NW while Sun is setting on your left.
4. Titus Canyon, Mosaic Canyon were interesting but not super photogenic, to my taste.
5. Eureka dune takes 6 hours round trip from the Information Center, not worth the trouble.
6. Stovepipe Dune needs a good wind storm to clear up foot tracks and reshape many broken ridge lines.
Enjoy the trip.
Jae Moon