I went to Death Valley with two long time friends of mine. We had a marvelous time. Serendipitously we had a full moon for our time there so ended up doing about half of our hikes by moonlight. Death Valley is a park that really shines for night hikes. Badwater was also flooded from snows in the mountains a week and half before. Dante’s view was closed due to ice which was was a drag but everything else we wanted to do was open so I can’t really complain.

I was actually going to leave my gear behind but one of my friends is a photo enthusiast so along it all came. I’ve stopped taking my equipment with on a lot of trips. It’s more enjoyable to not have to worry about it and I don’t really do anything with my landscapes anymore.