[ Beneath the Waves ]

Drive 2007 - Day 14

article and photographs by Ben Lincoln

 

The western border of Death Valley has a pleasant surprise waiting: Rainbow Canyon. There are many interesting sights to see in the area, but this is by far the most colourful that I came across.

Rainbow Canyon, Death Valley National Park
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This canyon in Death Valley was amazingly colourful even to my eyes just after dawn. Its brilliant hues are even more pronounced in the multispectral versions of this shot.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 35mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-09-27
Version: 3.0

 

At the edge of the desert, I stumbled upon Owens Lake. Owens was originally a salt-water lake year-round, but is now a dry lakebed due to its feeding river being diverted to bring water to Los Angeles starting in the early 20th century[1].

Although it is something of an ecological catastrophe, the dessicated, ruined corpse of Owens Lake is quite beautiful. I immediately recognized that the striking colours must be due to mineral deposits, and I was not disappointed by the false colour results.

Owens Lake, California 1
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A dry lakebed full of precipitated minerals. I'm not sure what the "lonely lemonade stand" in the lower left actually is.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 100mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-06-14
Version: 2.0

 
Owens Lake, California 2
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A closer shot of the dry lakebed. Another example of an area that looks straight out of Dr. Seuss as soon as you start looking in other parts of the spectrum. Someday I'd like to go back and get even more pictures of the lakebed itself.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-06-14
Version: 2.0

 
Owens Lake, California 3
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A medium shot of the lakebed.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 50mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-06-14
Version: 2.0

 

Here in eastern California I saw the Sierra Nevada mountain range for the first time. These mountains stand in sharp contrast to others in the southwest corner of the US. The effect (at least from a distance) is as if countless stone knives and other rough-hewn tools have been left upended in the earth long enough to receive a thin dusting of snow.

Sierra Nevada Mountains, California 1
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This 3-shot panorama of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the middle of eastern California is to me a great example of the varied landscape you will see across the state.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-05-16
Version: 2.0

 
Sierra Nevada Mountains, California 2
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Some examples of the landscape and local plants just off the road.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 35mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-06-16
Version: 2.0

 
Sierra Nevada Mountains, California 3
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A last look back at the mountains of this part of California, along with some more of the local plant life.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 35mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-06-20
Version: 2.0

 

Near where these photos were taken, I stopped inside a general store. California has a reputation as by far the least firearm-friendly state in the US, and so I was shocked to see that one could buy both hard alcohol and ammunition in the same store. I almost bought a bottle of whiskey and a box of .45 ACP just to experience the full novelty[2].

A relatively short drive north brought me to Convict Lake. There is a resort there, but I was only interested in the lake itself.

You may (or most likely not[3]) recognize Convict Lake from its appearance in Star Trek: Insurrection (the ninth Star Trek feature film). Like Vasquez Rocks, the area where shooting took place is only a short walk from the parking lot, although the production crew managed to conceal that fact fairly well.

The water of Convict Lake is an intense, bright blue. The only time I've seen anything else like it is at Crater Lake in Oregon (which I visited two days later on this trip).

Convict Lake 1
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This was done as an enormous (5 wide by 2 tall) panorama, requiring thirty exposures to capture the three spectral bands. Although it was the only way of getting the scene into a single image, it was the final nail in the coffin of giant panoramas as far as I'm concerned. The detail shot below much better represents the beauty of Convict Lake, but I wanted to include this one both as a guide to what the area as a whole looks like, and also as a warning to others who might attempt the same sort of folly.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-06-27
Version: 2.0

 
Convict Lake 2
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From down on the shore of the lake, a picture of the mountains across the water.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-06-28
Version: 2.0

 
Convict Lake Handheld Shots
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Assorted handheld shots of Convict Lake.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Various
Filters: LDP CC1
Date Processed: 2008-07-27
Version: 1.0

 

Continuing north, I detoured off the highway to Bodie State Historic Park. Bodie is California's best-preserved/restored (and probably also the best-known - it has its own website) ghost town. It was founded in the middle of the 19th century and abandoned in the early 20th century. The State of California describes its current state as one of "arrested decay", although I suspect that at least some of the buildings have been restored more than is openly acknowledged. In any case, Bodie is a very interesting snapshot of an era only about a century ago that still manages to feel like the distant past.

Bodie 1
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This is the first sight to be seen on entering Bodie. It still seems to me to be a good emblem of the entire town - the multispectrally rainbow-coloured grass is everywhere, and this type of wood seems to have been the main material used in building most of the structures.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 35mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-10-03
Version: 3.0

 
Bodie 3
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It's very challenging to take photos of the insides of most of the buildings in Bodie due to the metal cagework that's used to keep people out. I really wanted to capture something of this one though, because seeing this church (with its hopeful "Praise waiteth for thee o God in Zion" message) sitting abandoned in the middle of a ghost town (even a very popular ghost town) stuck with me.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2008-07-26
Version: 1.0

 
Bodie 4
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Many visitors to Bodie seem to have an odd habit of using the buildings as sort of wishing-well. For me, the contrast between this old room (which looks as though a ghost should be sitting at the sewing machine) and the money lying on the bed was truly bizarre. I left out the false-colour versions of this shot because they don't reveal anything extra.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-06-28
Version: 2.0

 
Bodie 5
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This dressing table is a great example of at least two interesting aspects of multispectral photography. First is the difference in how the mirror reflects light in the three bands. Unlike chromed or other non-silver metal with a "mirror" finish, this one reflects ultraviolet-A light very well, but the clearest image is provided by the near infrared version (although some of this is due to the different depths of field). The second is the wood of the furniture. What appears to be fairly standard hardwood takes on the look of purple heart or cedar when the spectrum is shifted around.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 35mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-07-03
Version: 2.0

 
Bodie 8
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A wide shot of "Mill Hill" in Bodie. The grass in this area shows a surprising amount of variation outside the visible spectrum.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-07-03
Version: 2.0

 
Bodie 9
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One of the most nicely-restored houses in Bodie, this one makes frequent appearances in visitors' photos. The wood used for the siding of this house exhibits the same interesting "cedar" and "purple heart" tones as the dressing table above, so I imagine they're from the same kind of tree.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-07-03
Version: 2.0

 
Bodie 10
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Even though I could have done a better job on the composition of this photo, it's still my favourite from Bodie. I love the odd design of the cart, and the bright multispectral colours of the ever-present local grass.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-07-03
Version: 2.0

 
Bodie 11
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Not all of Bodie has been fully-restored. This building seems to have been boarded up until its turn comes around.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 35mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-07-04
Version: 2.0

 
Bodie 12
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This is as close as you can get to Mill Hill without being part of a guided tour. The terrible angle is not due to my usual bad habit at the time of trying to capture too much of the sky, but because it was the only one that included the main buildings but not the ugly fence. Someday I'd like to go back planning on making time for the guided tour, as I'm very curious about what's supposedly so dangerous in this area.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-07-04
Version: 2.0

 
Bodie 13
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One of the many enormous pieces of dismantled machinery in Bodie. This one appears to be a pair of giant winches (for dragging lumber?).

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 35mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-07-04
Version: 2.0

 
Bodie 14
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This ruined building looks ancient compared to the rest of the town. I imagine it hasn't been restored yet at least partly due to the increased difficulty of restoring stonework over carpentry.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-07-04
Version: 2.0

 
Bodie 15
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This collosal flywheel - looking for all the world like a relic of a parallel reality in which one of Wernher von Braun's space stations has crashed to Earth - is another great example of the seemingly random pieces of old machinery littered about the town. The effect is as though a young giant has been playing with a late-19th-century factory and left the pieces scattered around when something else caught his attention.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-07-04
Version: 2.0

 
Bodie 16
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A more-intact piece of machinery, although I'm at a loss as to what it actually did. It has a huge gear ratio and the two spools are wound with strong ribbons of metal cable, so maybe it pulled large trees lengthwise through a sawblade?

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 35mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-07-04
Version: 2.0

 
Bodie Machinery Handheld Shots
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Various handheld shots of the machinery scattered around Bodie.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Various
Filters: LDP CC1
Date Processed: 2008-07-27
Version: 1.0

 
Bodie Handheld Shots
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Assorted handheld shots from Bodie. I'm not sure what metal the siding and roofing is made out of (I believe it's tin) but the patina it's developed over time is great.

Date Shot: 2007-09-13
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Various
Filters: LDP CC1
Date Processed: 2008-07-28
Version: 1.0

 

If you are interested in visiting Bodie (and I do recommend it if you're in the area), be aware that there are no services (other than restrooms) or camping inside the park, and it's a relatively long drive from the highway. I would also suggest dedicating at least an entire day - while I was able to see most of the town, there were a few things I missed out on due to having also spent time at Convict Lake (particularly the mill tour).

By the time I left Bodie, it was getting too late in the day to get in a good visit at Yosemite, my next destination. I ended up staying the night in Lee Vining, a small town just north of the east entrance to the park. A word of caution about this town - there are no truly affordable places to stay. This is not to say that there are only fancy 5-star hotels in town. On the contrary: there is a full range of lodging, but all of it is more expensive than you'd typically see elsewhere[4]. I believe all of the ownership is independent; you won't see budget-conscious chains like Motel 6 or upscale Hilton-type hotels here. If I remember correctly, the two cheapest motels were about $70 per night and $50/night. I hate spending a lot of money on lodging if I'm traveling by myself, so I stayed at the least-expensive. It was clean, but there were a lot of flies buzzing around inside. As ridiculous as it is to pay $70/night or thereabouts to stay in a motel that seems to have been transported through time from 1974, it might be preferable (or maybe there are flies there too).

 

Date: 13 September 2007
Starting Mileage: 67479
Ending Mileage: 67790
Distance Travelled (Day): 311 miles
Distance Travelled (Trip): 5436 miles
Gallons of Fuel Purchased (Day): 11.5
Gallons of Fuel Purchased (Trip): 171.9

GPS Map of Day 14
[   ]
 
       

This map is based on a screenshot of Streets and Trips 2007 (©2007 Microsoft Corporation).

 

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Footnotes
1. As noted in the article I linked to on Grist, the classic Jack Nicholson detective film Chinatown uses this episode in California's history as the backdrop for a fictional(?) story.
2. My home state of Washington remembers the Prohibition era a little too fondly and only allows hard alcohol to be sold by state-owned liquor stores. In addition, while I'm not aware of any laws restricting the sale of ammunition, it is very uncommon to find it for sale here outside of gun stores.
3. Insurrection seems to be one of the least-loved Star Trek films. I remember being extremely disappointed with it during the theatrical release, but on later viewing I decided I'd been overly harsh. It certainly has its share of flaws (what's up with the bluescreens in the Giant Space Weapon that were never replaced with effects footage?), but it fits in well with Gene Roddenberry's original vision of using science fiction to pose ethical questions. I would say that overall it's weaker than most of the feature films, but stronger than many of the television episodes. Or maybe it's just that the next one in the series was so terrible that everything else looks amazing by comparison. Thank you, J.J. Abrams - I'm sure I'm not the only one who considered Nemesis the last nail in the coffin for Trek films until you came along.
4. I wouldn't be surprised if this were due to Lee Vining's location just minutes from Yosemite. I didn't have any trouble finding a place to stay without a reservation, but in the spring and early summer it might be a different story. I'm not a huge fan of resort towns, but I'm sure that for popular destinations it's a seller's market in terms of lodging.
 
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