Photography in the ALABAMA HILLS 🇺🇸 USA Road Trip | Episode 2

Photography in the ALABAMA HILLS 🇺🇸 USA Road Trip | Episode 2

In the second part in this us road trip I travel from Death Valley National Park to the Alabama Hills located in the Sierra Nevada mountain range Often overshadowed by nearby national parks the Alabama Hills feels like a Hidden Gem and I was pleasantly surprised by the scenery during my

Visit join me on the next few days of the trip all right good morning everyone and welcome to another day in Death Valley National Park for sunrise this morning um I sort wanted to come to somewhere a little bit different somewhere that’s not on the tourist Trail so I came to a

Viewpoint that um scouted out yesterday and yeah I sort of noticed these really cool mud cracks and a pretty cool mountain range that surrounds this this area might not be able to tell at the moment but got some really really nice light this morning some lovely color in

The clouds which uh yeah really kind of made the scene extra special yeah these these mud cracks are are pretty unique I’ve yet to see any like this in the park so far but um yeah I just love the different colors of the mud and you kind of get these little

Pockets of of salt that’s kind of fallen in into the dips which yeah is pretty cool you kind have to question what your life has come to when you get excited about mud but that’s where I’m at the plan for today is uh I’ve got a

Night stay tonight over in uh Lone Pine which is over towards the Alabama Hills um so going to be exploring there for this afternoon and tomorrow morning um it’s about uh 2 and 1 half hour dve from where I am right now so I’m just heading over the

Mountain pass at the moment about half an hour from Lone Pine and just spotted these amazing uh I think they’re Joshua trees yeah they they stand out in this landscape so see them on the horizon so but yeah they look they look pretty cool so I’ve arrived in the Alabama

Hills and first impressions is it is amazing absolutely incredible the rock formations are just so so unique really really impressed so far one thing I noticed on the drive over here is not only the change in landscape but um the color of the foliage there are a lovely like pastel color which

Just looks really really photogenic one thing I’m a bit surprised about is is uh this area is not busy at all uh there’s only at the moment like two cars in the car park and this is like the main one of the main Trails so bit

Surprised all right so I’ve made it to boot Arch which is another unique formation here it’s stunning really stunning nearby boot Arch there’s Cyclops Arch uh which is yeah another good photography spot I think the thing that is surprising me about this area is just the variety of

The plants uh there are so many different shapes and colors and like I don’t know textures yeah they’re quite quite interesting to photograph so it’s approaching Sunset and I’m going to spend a bit of time just wandering the area just seeing what what scenes I can I can

Find it’s all very photogenic and that’s kind of one thing that I’m finding on this trip is yeah everything just looks so good you know it’s so different to to what we have uh back home for Sunrise the next day I headed back to the same location absolutely beautiful

Sunrise lovely colors in the Sky starting to get some light on the on the peaks of the Sierra n Vada mountain range over there really beautiful so I’ve really enjoyed my time here so far in the Alabama Hills so much so uh I’ve decided to stay here an extra

Night and explore a little bit more and I was thinking that in Death Valley i’ I feel like I’ve done quite a lot there and I’ve kind of ticked off a lot of the places that I wanted to visit so I was more comfortable sacrificing a day in Death Valley

For for a day here so before coming on this trip I hadn’t really done any Astro photography and I always thought with this trip it would be a real shame if I didn’t at least do one night of of Astro and yeah this this area the Alabama Hills and

Death Valley it’s probably one of the best places in the world for Astro and yeah I kind of thought if there’s any place to give it a go it’s it’s probably here so early last night ient ventured back up um into the hills yeah I really

Enjoyed it actually and I think I came away with some pretty nice images so an interesting thing about this area is back in the day it was a popular filming location particularly for western films and apparently there’s lots of areas around here that you can

Go to and recreate those scenes but um I can definitely see if it’s a western film how this would be a perfect setting oh one of the good things about staying in Lone Pine and visiting the Alabama Hills is that they’re so close to one another

Um I’m just staying in a motel for the two nights and um nothing special but it’s got an amazing Vista just above me there so after a midday break I’m back in the hills and there’s a couple of hours before Sunset so just going for a

Little bit of a stroll but yeah I was just thinking how uh there are some areas which feel very kind of manicured and managed and like the paths are all marked out um and it feels almost like you’re walking through I don’t know like a like a wild garden um but then you

Have a good mix because you can go a little bit further out and yeah that is truly you know rugged and wild unfortunately that evening I didn’t get much luck with the weather conditions so I got an early night ready for one last sunrise so that wraps up my time in the Alabama

Hills and it’s been absolutely brilliant a lot better than I thought it would be So the plan is now to head back into Death Valley National Park um it’s about two and a bit hours I think so going to sort of stock up on some snacks and drinks and things before heading back

In all right so I’ve made the drive out to Ubbi crater I think that’s how it’s pronounced and yeah this is pretty pretty incredible the crater was formed between 2000 and 7,000 years ago and was a result of magma migrating towards the surface which turned groundwater into steam and created enough pressure to

Explode through the ground I then went to an elevated Viewpoint of the mosquit dunes and I’m getting some spectacular conditions this evening I’ve come to a Viewpoint overlooking the uh the dunes in the back there and it’s beautiful I’m using a like a long lens to compress the

Scene and it just looks incredible just looks like waves of of sand it’s yeah amazing and I’m just watching as the sun kind of washes over the Peaks and it’s yeah really beautiful so for sunrise today I’ve made my way out to the mosqu dunes and and

Yeah really calm peaceful morning so of all the places to visit in Death Valley I think the dunes is probably the thing that inspired me most and one of the main reasons I wanted to come here and yeah it’s definitely lived up to expectations it’s just been been beautiful now

All right so I’ve now come to uh Golden Canyon uh I’ve driven past this place several times already and it has been on my list of somewhere to visit so taking an opportunity to do it now it’s a pretty cool Trail uh so many different colors it’s quite amazing

All right so I’ve come to a remote and quiet part of the park not too far away from the road and yeah I sort of discovered this on a drive the other day got this lovely sweeping channel of water that kind of leads your eye right

To the mountains in the back there and uh yeah a lot of this area is kind of crusted over with uh salt um AP from this kind of little narrow strip of water which um yeah looks pretty cool after waiting for quite some time to my amazement there was a small clearing in

The clouds just before Sunset which produced some incredible light just got the most incredible Sunset it’s still it’s still going but oh oh my I’ve never seen light so good it was just shining on the on the mountains in the back there and uh yeah I just sort of

Had to scramble around and find a a good for ground and that wraps up the second part in this series in the next part I’ll be making the most of my final day in Death Valley before then heading to the Valley of Fire State Park

#california #usatravel #travelvlog

In the second part of this mini USA road trip I visit the incredible landscape of the Alabama Hills in California.

I start off the video in Death Valley where I come across some incredibly unique mud cracks which produced some of my favourite images from the whole trip.

I then make my way to the Alabama Hills and seeing the Sierra Nevada mountain range for the first time was incredible.

In the video, I share my thoughts and opinions of visiting the Alabama Hills. On the whole it was amazing and certainly an very underrated location in California, probably because there are many iconic national parks nearby.

I also offer some helpful tips and pieces of advice throughout the video which will hopefully enable you to plan a trip of your own.

Photographically speaking it was incredible and I certainly got the images I envisaged before visiting. I also tried my hand at astrophotography, something I haven’t done before, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results.

Towards the end of the video, I head back to Death Valley National Park and visit Ubehebe Crater and the Mesquite Dunes.

On one of my last sunsets in Death Valley I was incredibly lucky with the weather conditions and I got some beautiful light shining on the mountains – a truly special experience.

I hope you enjoy the video. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to comment below.

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Welcome to my channel! I’m Ollie, a passionate photographer from the UK with a love for travel and exploration. Here, I document my adventures around the world, capturing incredible moments and creating unforgettable memories. I share my honest experiences and give practical tips which will hopefully help you to get the most out of your adventures!

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00:00 – Intro
00:36 – Sunrise in Death Valley
02:32 – Traveling to the Alabama Hills
04:13 – Boot Arch
05:30 – Sunset / Sunrise at Boot Arch
07:32 – Astrophotography
8:20 – Exploring more of the Alabama Hills
10:43 – Final sunrise & Heading Back to Death Valley
12:35 – Mesquite Dunes
14:38 – Golden Canyon
15:30 – Spectacular Sunset Photography
17:17 – Outro