Hikers on a ridge above the coloured badlands of Golden Canyon with the Panamint Range beyond, Death Valley.

Wrong Colours

Golden Canyon, Death Valley National Park, California

This is not the desert people picture, and it is not the mountains people picture either. The colours are wrong for both, which is exactly why I wanted it. The hikers on the ridge are walking out of the frame rather than into it, and that felt more honest about the scale of the place — you don't arrive somewhere like this, you cross it and keep going.

Nikon Z 7_2 · NIKKOR Z 24-120mm f/4 S · 28mm · f/16 · 1/200 · ISO 320

February 14, 2026

Back to Death Valley

More from Death Valley

Desert gold wildflowers on a slope above the salt flats of Badwater Basin, Death Valley National Park.Salt crust at Badwater Basin lit low across its ridges during blue hour, Death Valley National Park.A lone figure silhouetted on a badlands ridge at sunrise under a pink and purple sky, Zabriskie Point, Death Valley.Black and white photo of four hikers silhouetted on the ridge of a dune at Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, Death Valley.Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes at blue hour, warm sand giving way to blue and pink sky over the distant salt basin.Clouds reflected in floodwater on the salt flats of Badwater Basin, the Panamint Range beyond, Death Valley.