Wildflowers & Death Valley Eroded Badlands

...mouse click to enlarge... This 4x5 Provia 100F transparency was exposed with my 90mm Caltar lens mid March of 2005 during the greatest wildflower bloom in park's history. This area is immediately south of heavily visited Golden Canyon in central Death Valley. The quite fragrant yellow-hued wildflowers are desertgold, geraea canescens, that were the dominant species that turned large expanses of this normally arid lifeless valley into a colorful natural wonder for a few brief weeks that may not occur again for decades. The foreground plain here is lake sediments from a geologically recent Quarternary Period glacial lake bed. The background badlands hills are 6,000,000 year old Pliocene Period water eroded deposits, with light colored areas of silt and mud deposited in a lake bed and red areas rusty iron minerals of conglomerate alluvial fans. The image will be available as Lightjet fine art print via Gallery B on my below homepage. ...David Senesac http://www.davidsenesac.com