Mojave Desert, CA

Today was more exercise than I’ve had in a while. I was maybe 15 miles into the park when I glimpsed a beautiful photo possibility between two hills. The road curved in close to one set of hills and I pulled off the road at the closest place I could find. From the van it looked like no more than a few hundred yards up a gentle slope to a ridge that looked like it would give me a great panorama of the valley and mountains beyond. When I got to that ridge I found that the view was ok, but was hindered by another set of hills a few hundred yards further on. It looked like if I were to climb up to the peak of the closest one I would have a truly postcard-worthy shot. You can probably imagine what happened next and then again after that. Every hilltop showed me another and each one wasn’t too much further and I had already come that far so…

Cut-to: an hour and forty-five minutes later, with a heart rate better suited to a hummingbird, I finally got back to the van with a bunch of photos; none of which will do justice to the view I labored for.