Dan's Outside

Spring Break – It Must Be Death Valley Time

Over the past few years I have made it a habit to head to Death Valley to do photography during the spring break. As a faculty member at an institution that is on the quarter system, my break is always right around the first week of April and just a week or so into spring.

I have such a plan this year. Right now I’m finishing up the end-of-winter-quarter business at school, and at the same time starting to think through my plans for this little trip. Odds are I’ll be there for 4 or 5 days, but I like to stay a bit flexible so that I can respond to interesting changes in conditions – weather, word of a wildflower bloom, etc.

To my mind, this is pretty much the tail end of the Death Valley “high season.” By early April it isn’t unusual to already start to encounter days where the temperature rises into the 90 degree range. I’m of the opinion that only crazy people (and, apparently, European tourists) would want to go to the Valley in the middle of summer – but they do. From what I hear some folks want to face the challenge of experiencing the truly extreme conditions of the hot season there. To be honest, there is a part of me that understands this, but my preference is to go during the “cool” season that extends from late fall up until right about now.

March 27, 2009 - Posted by gdanmitchell | Places