Moto/Photo Adventure in Death Valley
Webster's Dictionary defines Adventure as; noun: an exciting or remarkable experience or verb: to venture; hazard. It also says "an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks" but that's not for me, usually, calculated risks are ok sometimes. If you notice, the definition does not specify that your undertaking must be X days long, X miles long, X distance from home, X level of difficulty, X destination or X activity. The definition is only that the experience be exciting or remarkable to be an adventure. I truly believe adventure is important for anyone and everyone, we as humans need to step out of our comfort zones from time to time. Go for a longer bike ride or hike, explore a trail you've never been on before. Heck, do your usual trail in reverse, I've done this one many times on my mountain bike and it feels like a totally different trail. Adventures don't always have to be an outdoors or athletic activity, try going on vacation somewhere way different than you normally do, go on vacation by yourself, heck maybe you just go to a movie by yourself. The point is to get out of your comfort zone and get your brain to think and experience something different. Doing something different or adventurous is necessary for me to help me reset and recenter myself. Getting out into Nature is generally my first choice when I need to get away and recharge my mental and physical batteries.
In late February of 2023 I spent a week drifting around Death Valley National Park with a few friends on motorcycles. Our bikes were loaded with whatever we needed for two days at time because we chose to camp in the backcountry of the park as much as possible. My friends also happened to be photographers which gave the trip a different fun factor. When I'm out on my photography trips I usually make a bazillion stops when my eye catches something I may want to take a picture of or mark on my Gaia GPS to come back to later. When I'm out with other photographers it's no problem if we stop for the bazilyionth time, we are all of a similar mindset so there's no issues and I don't feel guilty stopping often. Being able to combine two of my favorite things, motorcycles and photography, in one of my favorite places to explore are the ingredients needed for the definition of Adventure for me. The beauty of being on a motorcycle instead of driving around together in a vehicle is that I'm trapped in my own little world on my motorcycle, left alone with my thoughts to torture myself. I can decide if I want music in my helmet or silence so I can listen to the wind sweep through my helmet. Yes, I talk to myself a lot when I'm on my motorcycle, I should record the conversations as they can be hysterical or troubling depending on the mood. Another advantage to exploring on a motorcycle is that you actually get to be immersed in the place your are exploring. You feel the wind hitting you, you smell the different fragrances as you move along, you not only see the weather but you feel it, whether it's sun warming you, rain soaking you to the bone or wind pushing you sideways. There is no escaping the elements when riding a motorcycle, I think it makes me a better photographer as it forces me to actually see all of my surroundings.
Photo of me by Seth
My good friend Seth, who is also a professional photographer in Utah, and I had been to Death Valley together once before but we both brought our motorcycles there via our trucks and base camped at one of the developed campgrounds. I don't always have the luxury of a lot of time for my getaways, for this trip I blocked off six whole days on my calendar. I was super excited to explore new areas and a few favorites with hopes of creating a few images that I would be proud of. In addition to Seth, two of his friends also joined us for the trip, Hunter and Sam. Maybe for some this is the Adventure, meeting and doing an activity with people who are strangers. I thought if they are friends of Seth then they must be good people, the more the merrier. For this trip we wanted to be a little more adventurous and camp off our motorcycles in remote areas of the park. Having recently upgraded to a bigger motorcycle in the "Adventure Bike" category (that's a real motorcycle category, I didn't make it up), I decided to really get out of my comfort zone and ride my bike the 300+ miles each way from my house in San Diego to Death Valley and back. I don't have a ton of long range road riding experience. Driving on Southern California freeways can be nerve wrecking enough but on a motorcycle it's a little extra stressful, I wanted and needed an adventure. After packing, unpacking and rearranging my gear for the 100th time, my Yamaha Tenere 700 was packed and off I went to explore the desert.
I'm always happy to say that the ride to the destination was uneventful, I arrived to Death Valley a few hours before the others. Seth, Sam and Hunter were all coming from Utah which was blanketed in fresh snow so they decided to trailer their bikes in a truck and leave the truck at a campground for the week. I grabbed campsite and made friends with our neighbors who where also moto nerds like us, we got along nicely. A few hours later the rest of the gang arrived, after hugs (yes, real men comfortable in their skin hug) and handshakes it was as if we all knew each other our whole lives and the laughs immediately started. My sides still hurt from all the laughter that took place on this trip, it's amazing to me how some men in their 40's seem to never lose the ability to behave as if they are kids when we need to. I truly hope I never loose the ability to laugh at myself and just have a good time.
Our first destination was a remote section of the park with the tallest and in my opinion the most beautiful sand dunes in the Country. Sand dunes may be one of my favorite subjects to photograph besides the Ocean. Neither Seth, Sam nor Hunter had been to this area of Death Valley and I was super excited to show it to them. Because we are responsible adults we checked with the park rangers to make sure this section of the park was open due to the major floods several months prior. Confirmation granted it was time to get the tires off tarmac and get dusty! Hitting that first dirt road is always a smile maker, I can't explain it but for some reason it makes you feel alive. Even if that dirt road is a graded road that cars can drive on it's still different on a motorcycle, the guy in front starts kicking up a cloud of dust and it feels like the adventure has finally begun.
A couple of hours later we rounded our last turn and my favorite dunes started coming into view. I know I was hooting and hollering in my helmet, I wish I could hear what the others were saying when they saw those beautiful mounds of sand for the first time. Like kids at the first day of a new school year we were so excited, we quickly setup camp and headed out even though sunset wasn't for another four hours. I'm pretty sure that is part of the reason that I love photographing dunes so much, you don't just wait for the "golden hour" to arrive to get the camera out. Sand dunes can be photographed any time of day, even in harsh midday sun. As long as there is a shape or form to be found and a shadow to be cast, there is an image to be made. What an afternoon of photography we had, as soon as the sun started making it's initial decent the shutter buttons started getting worked like a heavy bag at the gym. Generally i use a tripod, it helps me slow down and really focus (get it) on finding a composition to work on. No tripod this evening, after walking around, smelling the air and hearing the deafening silence that is the desert, I was finally feeling the flow. My 70-200mm lens was the weapon of choice for the evening, what a great decision. Utilizing a longer focal length really gave me to opportunity to take advantage of the various shadows, shapes, sizes, textures and patterns in the sand. The possibilities were endless, every time I looked in a different direction i saw multiple subjects and compositions. And we had the whole place to our selves, there wasn't another person to be seen the whole evening. Unfortunately the light was gone and it was time to head back to camp for a boil in a bag dinner.
I awoke early the next morning to a typical cold, desert winter morning. I peeked my head out of the tent where I didn't see a cloud in the sky so I opted for more restless sleep. If you think the desert is always hot, think again, in the winter especially at higher elevations the desert can be freezing. Once the sun was high enough in the sky to warm my tent, it was time to get up and get the day going. Sitting in a remote area, enjoying the quiet of the morning, next to the tallest sand dunes in the country having a cup of coffee really is the good life.
We had two possibilities for our next destination, whichever way we chose was going to be a good half day slog through deep sand, rocky terrain and three obstacles through one pass that I knew of. I had not been to this area of the park because I'm usually by myself and never felt comfortable doing it solo. Luckily we were in a group, one of the obstacles proved to a little much for my abilities on a heavy bike and I needed a little assistance. However, the bigger issue that I wasn't prepared for was me having a mentally challenging day on the bike and really struggling through the loose terrain. I struggle in the deep sand, I always do but being on a bigger, heavier bike, loaded with all my gear for the first time in deep sand for two hours was enough to not just ignite my fuse but also let the fuse burn all the way to the powder. Luckily no one else was able to hear the F bombs I kept yelling at myself for not being as good a rider as i want to be, I'm extremely competitive with myself! Once I get in my head it's really hard for me to get out of it, it's something I'm constantly working on. At one point I had to just stop, take a few deep breaths and remind myself there is no race and I should be enjoying where I'm at and what I'm doing. Those deep breaths don't make the struggle go away but they do help to calm me down some. We had about 20 more miles of this deep, rocky, fatigue inducing riding to go. Suck it up buttercup, no way out of it but to twist the throttle and hold on. I knew we were heading towards one of the hot springs I've seen on a map and heard about but had never been to.
Tired, hungry, PISSED OFF and thirsty, the end was in site and I could see signs of life, people and a few cars. I rolled into the hot springs area where I saw Seth chatting away with a few people laughing, F you! What I wasn't expecting to see was an old, fat, naked guy riding a 30 year old moped but it was exactly what I needed to snap me out of my bad mood. I did not know that this particular hot spring was actually three different springs that are very nice and even have a shower, also a mini nudist colony. I was immediately offered a cocktail, wait what?! But I was so beat I opted for a water instead, this was the best glass of iced sparkling water I've ever had in my life!! There was no guessing what was for lunch, PB&J of course and it was so good. There was no time to soak in the really hot water that would've been very nice on tired muscles, we needed to get to where we thought our next camp would be. We met and chatted with some super nice, kind hearted people, although some had no clothes on so that was interesting trying to keep the eyes at eye level.......
Seth had a particular spot in mind that he wanted to visit for photos and potentially camp for the night, unfortunately that area was higher than we expected and still had snow in a few places. No way did I want to freeze that bad when the sun went down. We decided as a group to head back to the truck to regroup and head back out in the morning.
The next day is when the real adventuring began, we planned on spending three days in a section of park that none of us had been to. We had plenty of gas, water and food to last us but no real plan on where we would camp other than cursory options from scouring maps. Yep, you guessed it, the next destination involved dirt roads and remote sand dunes. The day and journey started with clear skies and minimal wind, the day did not end that way! As we traveled further south we could see a lot of clouds moving in and the winds really started working us on the bikes and kicking up a lot of sand. About twenty miles from the dunes where we wanted to photograph we could see this wasn't going to happen as you could barely see the dunes because the dust storm was so massive. Luckily I had an old mining cabin pinned on my Gaia GPS from a friend, the group agreed we should at least check it out as an option if we needed it. Finding this old mining cabin was literally like finding an oasis, it was absolutely perfect for us, shelter for the night from the elements. The wind gusts were clocking 60-70mph, there is no way our tents would've survived! There were four bunks and a table to eat at, what more could we ask for. The tin roof sounded like it was going to fly off all night, not much sleep was had but man o man was there a lot of laughter that took place in that cabin. We decided we would make the cabin home for two nights instead of trying to find a location sheltered enough to pitch tents the next night.
View from the ridge above the cabin, Ibex Dunes in the distant right side surrounded by a dust storm.
The next morning the winds died down enough for us to go check out the other dunes we wanted to photograph but first we rode over to the closest town to refill on water, gas and hope for cell reception to check the weather apps. Good thing we did as we were able to get a bar of reception to see a major storm heading our way and exactly where I was going to be riding home on Saturday. That ginormous blob on my phone screen was all I needed to see, time to get home as fast as possible on Friday instead of Saturday. After a super fun dirt road over to the dunes we spent the afternoon getting sand blasted while trying to hold cameras steady enough to take pictures. You couldn't help but laugh, sand was getting absolutely everywhere. Luckily when riding a motorcycle in the desert you already have goggles with you, at least we could see. I had an absolute blast, literally and figuratively
Back to the cabin for one more night of thinking the tin roof is coming off and gut cramping laughter. On Saturday morning as I packed up my Tenere I watched the sky darken and kept thinking "welp, this is going to be interesting six hour ride home". And interesting it was, luckily I had the proper gear with me to keep me dry, warm and somewhat comfortable. Just before I left the dirt for tarmac I stopped to put on my rain layer as I could see the dark storm clouds I would be riding into, instead of waiting until I hit the rain, occasionally I make good decisions. After about two hours of freeway riding I hit the first first for me, riding in snow. The Cajon Pass was just starting to sleet and there was snow on the surrounding hills, I'm so glad I left when I did because Sunday this area covered in snow. I hit two more rain storms and a low of 38 degrees. When I stopped to get gas and was briefly sheltered from the rain I couldn't help but seriously laugh at myself, soaking wet on a motorcycle with another three hours to go. Thank goodness for Gortex and heated handgrips!!!!! That ride home will go down as the most unique trip I've ever taken on a motorcycle to date, I hope for many more in the years to come.
Time to gear up and ride into the storm.
I'm sure it was a combination of factors between the location, weather, people and being on a motorcycle but this was one of the most photographically productive trips I've ever taken. I have a few images that I'm extremely proud of, that I connect with and hopefully the viewer will connect with and be moved by as well. When I get back from trips I always hope for a keeper or two, so far I have a few keeps and still have images to look at yet. I’m very proud of the images that I’ve created on this trip so far, hopefully there are a few more gems hidden to be discovered another day. I hope to share with you the images I created on this trip soon, stay tuned.
Now get out there and get adventuring, whatever that means for you. You decide what's out of your comfort zone, go ahead and dip your toe in that water! To some my adventure to Death Valley on a motorcycle may seem too much and too adventurous. To a person who has ridden a motorcycle around the world, my adventure may be no big deal. My adventure was just the right amount for me, you chose your own version and just do it.
Thanks as always for following along on my journey, I appreciate your support. I hope you enjoy my images as much as I do creating them. Feel free to reach out if you a comment, question or jut want to say hey.
~ Andrew
