Over the past decade, I've adopted the idea that the week of Thanksgiving is a great week for adventure. Assuming you work a full time job and Thursday and Friday are already vacation days, you can take a full 10 day vacation while only using three days of paid time off. On this particular holiday, I did not have a steady job and I was spending the holiday at the house of one of my best friend's in-law's parent's friends up in Calabassas. Knowing he would be preoccupied the rest of the weekend with his wife and newborn child, I convinced my friends PJ and Joey to meet me in Death Valley. Little did I know I'd be shooting a proposal.
Death Valley National Park is an incredible, desolate place in southeastern California. It's a relatively short drive (about 3.5/4 hours) from Los Angeles and an even closer drive from Las Vegas which is where PJ and Joey were spending the holiday with PJ's family. PJ has been a good buddy since we became friends in our sophomore year of college at Northeastern, which, at the time of this writing was about 15 years ago. A couple years later, while still in Boston, Joey came into the picture and we've all been in one another's lives ever since. Of all my couple friends, PJ and Joey generally require the least amount of convincing to get them on board with whatever I want to do so needless to say, Death Valley was an easy sell.
On Friday morning, with our bellies full and our food comas subsiding, we hopped in our cars (both MINIs) and drove to our meeting spot in Furnace Creek. PJ's dad even came to say hi on his motorcycle and then after 15 minutes, turned around and went back to Vegas. I didn't have any sort of agenda planned and knowing we both we limited by our vehicles in a heavily 4x4 favored environment, we decided to systematically start from the north west part of the park and see what we could see. After getting to Stovepipe Wells and setting up camp, we headed to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes right down the street to play around in the sand until sunset and scout for a good location to take some Milky Way pictures.
PJ and Joey head up a massive, well-tracked dune.
A visitor hangs out on top of one of the dunes while the Panamint Range sits in the distance.
To the eye, Death Valley can be a very bland and sun bleached environment with the sun overhead. It is on record as being the hottest location in the US. That changes, however, as the sun's angle approaches the horizon. As this happens, the palette of the Death Valley landscape comes to life. Being in the sand dunes during sunrise or sunset in particular is a treat. The sand becomes a vibrant gold. Adding to that, the curves and dramatic, climbable hills are incredible for photography.
As the sun began to set, I started to play around with silhouettes.
PJ and Joey admire the sunset from atop a dune.
The sand also plays nicely with cooler tones. It's a perfect landscape.
As the sun set being the Panamint Range and our collective hunger started to rise, we made a group decision to head back to the car and find something to eat. Being in the desert, the dining options in Death Valley are pretty slim and those that exist are priced to reflect that. There are a couple options in Furnace Creek (17 miles away) and Stovepipe Wells (where we were staying) has a saloon and a corner store with the basics if you wanted to cook yourself hot dogs and pop tarts. We chose the saloon as burgers and a beer sounded much more appealing. We went back to the campsite and chilled for a little bit longer until the moon was close to setting behind the mountains creating an ideal scenario for astrophotography. The darker the skies, the better.
I had in my mind a pretty good idea of what I wanted to accomplish and was certain the sand dunes down the road would help me achieve it. The Milky Way is such a fascinating and rather addicting thing to shoot, but after taking one picture of it with no foreground, it loses it's magnificence. Enter PJ and Joey. With them situated on a ridge top of a dune and myself way down below the Milky Way could be used a striking backdrop to their silhouettes. It didn't take too much walking into the dunes to find a location that worked. The most difficult part about taking a Milky Way photo with a foreground composition is composing the shot in the dark and then getting it in focus. This is made so much easier by having a friend with a headlamp or flashlight to shine on your focal point. If your camera has a focus peaking feature, it's a breeze. Another suggestion is, if you can, find your composition in the day time, mark it on your phone with your GPS and come back when it's dark. In this case, we winged it and lucked out. We took maybe fifty different poses, but this one stood out.
A five shot composite with the Sony A7RII and the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 lens.
Midnight came and went and we started to get tired and I was sure I had gotten at least one keeper so we decided to head back to camp and go to bed. The next day, we woke with the sun and with nothing planned, we decided to take the park by storm. Across the road from our campsite was the Mosaic Canyon trail which labeled as a moderate 4 mile round trip out and back seemed like an ideal start to our day. We packed up camp drove the 2 or so miles up the unpaved road to the trailhead and did ourselves a morning hike up into the canyon to see what we could find.
PJ and I took the high road while Joey stayed down below. This photo gives you a pretty good overview of what to expect from the Mosaic Canyon hike.
After hiking up into the canyon for about an hour, the trail started to become less traveled and less obvious. We'd felt we'd seen as much as the trail would probably offer us without getting technical, so we decided to head back to the cars and drive to the other side of the park. After a brief stop at the visitor center to pick up some super high luxury (sarcasm) refridgerated, packaged sandwiches (we really planned out the food for this trip), we hopped over to the Golden Canyon trail.
Having explored this hike before, I knew Joey and PJ would appreciate what it had to offer. When we parked, Joey scurried off to the bathroom. It was at this moment that the mindset an d the energy, at least for me, for the rest of the weekend completely changed. PJ muttered to me under his breath how he felt he had blown it the night before. I asked him what he meant. He our little starry sky adventure under the stars was the perfect opportunity and should have proposed. He went on to tell me he had been carrying a ring on him this entire time. I literally had zero idea up until this point. PJ and Joey had been dating for what felt like an eternity and everyone and their mother had been waiting and wondering for years when he was going to pop the question. But even so, I was still was taken aback and completely surprised. I was also very excited not only because i now knew he was finally, at some point, going to go through with it, but also because I'd probably, hopefully, get to witness it first hand. I told him "don't worry, there are lots of incredible places here and we'll go somewhere cool for sunset." Then Joey came back and we both had to act normal.
In contrast to Mosaic Canyon where much of the rock was harder and coppery and darker shades of red and black, Golden Canyon consisted of mostly yellowish gold formations of softer rock that would crumble to the touch. From the trailhead, you can go up and turn around at any point or complete a six mile loop. Much of the hike makes you feel like you are in a human sized ant colony, or at least that's how it's made me feel. For the first mile or so, you hike up the canyon, following a wash, flanked on either side by walls of rock and dirt. Eventually, the path leads you up and out of the canyon at which point, you'll be able to experience some wonderful views.
PJ and Joey climbing out of the canyon.
Almost to the top. Peep the moon right above the people.
The view from the top of the canyon is quite impressive. You can see the salt flats below and on the other side of the mountain in the distance is where Mosaic Canyon is.
After taking in the views, we headed down the adjacent canyon and back to the trailhead. In my opinion, the best part of this hike is the top, once you've hiked to the top, it doesn't really matter which direction you take to get back to the trailhead, but if you keep going forward, you're destined to see much less people which can be nice.
Not a particularly exciting or well composed photo, but this serves to show you what the last mile or two of the loop is like.
When we got back to the car, we had a hour or two left until sunrise. With PJ's newly revealed information in my mind, I had been scheming up a plan the entire hike that would hopefully offer up a good opportunity and allow them to see the sites. As I've already stated above, the color palette of Death Valley is at it's best when the sun is nearing the horizon and on top of that, there are countless, otherworldly scenes that could provide a memorable backdrop for a proposal. Badwater Basin, in my mind was the place and we were close.
Having a little bit of time to kill, we stopped on the way at the Devil's Golf Course, an easily accessible salt pan which earns it's name from the vast expanse of large, extremely sharp salt formations. It's a pretty cool area, but there's not too much to do other than stop and venture a tiny ways out and then take a picture as the rocks are extremely sharp to the touch and rather dangerous.
Climb out on the rocks if you dare, but whatever you do, don't fall.
We got our fix and continued on to Badwater Basin. Aside from being the lowest point below sea level in the United States, what makes Badwater Basin attractive to the masses, is its ever changing landscape of hexagonal honeycomb salt shapes. It's absolutely surreal. The ground is white and it takes a while for your brain to accept the idea that the ground isn't snow and isn't cold. It's a popular location, one of the most trafficked and easy to get to in the park, but for good reason. It should be noted that to get out to the good stuff, you need to walk a good half mile, but trust me, it's worth it.
In the brief time it took to drive to the basin, the sky had become slightly overcast and the light was a bit flat. I was a little apprehensive that my plan might not come to fruition, but maintained hope. As we walked out to the main area, the sun said it's final goodbye for the day behind the Panamint Mountains. Gradually, brown dirt gave way to salted earth.
I followed PJ and Joey as well as many others out to the salt flats, fingers crossed.
He didn't say it, but at this point, PJ shared my apprehension.
We kept walking. Well past the suggested half mile. We walked far enough so that there was little to no one left, the closest people mere dots in the distance. As we did this, the horizon to the south started to turn a bright yellow and a crescent moon, high above, popped it's head out. I scrambled to get some distance and instructed PJ and Joey to hold hands.
As the sun went down, the moon came out to play.
And then we turned around. The sun had dipped below the clouds and the entire sky to the north had started to turn brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and pink. Serendipity. It was at that moment a certain electricity filled my body. I know PJ felt it too. I knew it was coming. He left Joey and walked out past me, looked off in the distance, mustering up the courage, soaking up these last moments of having to hide the ring.
"This'll do"
He then came back and grabbed Joey by the hand and walked her back out to his spot and as they both looked out into the distance, he said to me "Ready Jake?" I was nervous and excited as hell and was already snapping photos like a mad man. I don't know if I could have said "yes" any faster.
"Ready Jake?"
"Will you marry me?"
"Yes." It couldn't have been a more perfect moment.
