A little over a year ago I lamented my failure at getting a photo of a crescent moon (Success, Failure, Try I must). I had just purchased a 100-600 mm zoom lens and I was hoping for a clear shot of the moon just prior to sunrise. I failed. A few years before that failure I also failed to get a shot of the moon at the Trona Pinnacles. On my last trip to Southern California, I partially redeemed myself from that failure.
What I had planned a few years ago was to get a picture of the moon resting on or near one of the pinnacles at the Trona Pinnacles. I was all set, I was in the Los Angeles area (LA) area visiting and I had planned on leaving LA about noon for the 4 hour drive, arriving prior to moonrise so I could scout out a good composition. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men. I got side tracked and did not get out of LA until mid afternoon. For all my planning, the picture below is the best I could do. IMHO, not so great, which is why this is the first public showing of any pictures from that trip. Failure.
But my creative juices were flowing. I did return to the Trona Pinnacles with an idea, and I didn’t do too bad with an image I published last fall (Favorite Places). On that trip I still didn’t get exactly what I was after. I was not thinking about how popular the Trona Pinnacles might be and ended up arriving on a Friday evening. Turns out the Trona Pinnacles are a popular camping destination and people were arriving well into the night, with headlights on, while I was trying to take star photos. Yeah, my photo sorta kinda worked but I had other ideas that were thwarted by the headlights and campfires. I was able to salvage one good image of the stars making an arc around the sky. Check the link above and scroll to the bottom of that post to see that image.
So I was thinking of the Trona Pinnacles again this spring and managed to make a stop on a weekday night. It just so happens that in late May it gets pretty hot on the Searless Lake bed, 100+ Degrees F (38+ Deg C), and nobody was there when I arrived, and nobody came the entire night I was there. I had the entire Trona Pinnacles to myself.
I arrived about 3 hours before sunset, sometimes planning works for me. And I found a pretty good spot to set my camera up for an all night sequence of the Milky Way moving across the pinnacles. But since the sun was setting, and the color was phenomenal, I wandered around and took a few pictures of the general area. The shot above is my favorite.
The Trona Pinnacles were formed when this area was underwater between 10,000 and 150,000 years ago. During that time, this area was a lake that was up to 660 ft (200 m) deep. Water levels would rise and fall as the climate changed. Springs brought calcium rich water up from the lake bed, the Calcium precipitated out forming these columns, known as tufa, when the area was underwater. Today, there is only an evaporation pond at the lowest elevation of the Searless Lake bed.
The pictures below were taken the next morning near sunrise.
So having been to the Trona Pinnacles several times now and not getting the shots I was after, I succeeded this time. Having found a good composition for the night sky where the Milky Way would rise above 3 nice pinnacles, I set up my camera and went to bed. I got up several times to make sure all was going well, and it did. Turns out Barstow, CA is relatively close to the Trona Pinnacles and the glow in the lower right are reflections from the lights in Barstow.
The above video is a 5 hour Timelapse that begins about 11pm local time.
Am I done visiting the Trona Pinnacles? I hope not. The area is starkly beautiful. I have been working on a crescent Moon photo for a long time. I just can’t seem to be in the right spot when the moon is in the right phase. And I also want to get a full Moon, or nearly Full moon with the Trona Pinnacles. I guess I have to continue my travels and keep trying for those elusive (at least for me) Moon photos.
If you have any comments, questions, criticism, or something you’d like to share about this area, or anything related to this post, please leave a comment. If you enjoyed what you read, hit that like button at the bottom, it means a lot.
These are all just wonderful photos, really appreciate the effort and thinking that went into capturing those moments.