Tag Archives: Rainbow canyon

Clouds Over the Valley

My trip to Rainbow Canyon gave me plenty of time to enjoy the scenery as the jets only showed up infrequently.  It was a cool and clear day on the whole but there were some times when clouds moved in.  This caused me some concern since I didn’t want to wait for a long time and then have jets show up when the valley was socked in!

Fortunately, the clouds did not get in the way of the main focus of the trip.  We did get some clouds drifting over the valley far below us.  We also got little puffs of cloud working their way up the canyon.  One bank of cloud rose out of the canyon and across the ridge on the opposite side from me.  I watched it drift across the surface gradually obscuring areas that had been clear a moment before.

Another small cloud formation drifted up the canyon towards me.  It was an isolated little cloud and it drifted in my direction and floated up over the edge of the ridge and to one side of where I was standing before it dissipated.  Then it was all clear again and I could go back to waiting for the jets.

Rainbow Canyon Earns its Name in the Afternoon Light

Many of the aviation people reading this will immediately know what Rainbow Canyon is.  For the rest of you, it is a canyon in Death Valley.  It is part of a low flying route used for military training and it is a popular spot for photographers to get shots of low flying jets either at eye level or below you in the canyon.  Today it is not going to be pictures of the jets though.  The canyon earned its name because there are many layers of rock in the walls that are of different colors.

I was there in winter so the sun angles never got too high.  This avoided washing out the colors of the rocks quite effectively.  Even so, as the day wore on, the angle of the sun certainly improved from the point of view of getting the color out of the rocks.  There was plenty of time with nothing flying so I was able to enjoy the views around the canyon a lot.

One thing that you struggle to appreciate at a place like this is the scale.  I read about the Spanish first arriving at the Grand Canyon and totally failing to appreciate the scale because there was nothing to give them a reference.  Rainbow Canyon, while a lot smaller than the Grand Canyon (obviously), still is deceptive.  The distance across felt very small until a jet flew through and you realized how far away it still was and it was not even close to the other side.  A quick look on Google Maps with the scale showing makes you realize it is actually a long way across.

Finally, We Get What We Came For

As my day at the canyon continued (you can read about the beginnings here), I got a bit more luck.  The Navy came to the rescue with some Hornets and Super Hornets making their way through the canyon.  One came in at an odd angle and then pulled out of the canyon over the overlook location.  This was fine for me but probably annoyed those further down the canyon.

Then we got something a lot more like what we had anticipated.  Jets came in along the angle from the highway starting out a lot lower than those that had come across the ridge.  They could drop in a lot more quickly and be deeper into the canyon as they came by.  This was what it was all about.  They provided a last minute contribution to what I had come for and I was very grateful.  A few more would have been good but it was okay.

Once disappointing aspect of this was that, with so few jets coming through, I shot all of them.  I didn’t have the opportunity to waste so I never got to keep the camera down and just appreciate the jets transitioning through below me for what it was.  On my next trip I will hopefully get to do that as well as get some shots.

My First Trip to the Canyon

Photographing low flying jets in their environment is a popular challenge.  The Loop in Wales is a great hunting ground.  I have driven through there a few times and flown through there once but I have never been on a photo expedition there.  Once I got close to setting up a trip but things got in the way.  In the US, Rainbow Canyon is a popular spot.  This canyon is known by a variety of names but it is well known for having jets flying through below the rim of the canyon so you can get shots of them beneath you.

I arranged to head there a short while ago with a buddy of mine.  The two of us were going to meet in LA and head up.  Sadly, he was unable to make the trip at the last moment but I figured I would go anyway as winter is a more acceptable time to be in Death Valley National Park and the chances of finding the time again soon were limited.  I did stay up in Palmdale to shorten the drive a bit.

The trip had mixed results.  We did not have a busy day.  Plenty of jets could be heard overhead or in the distance but the number coming through the canyon was low.  I probably got nine passes that day.  More disappointing was how some of them were quite high and not against the backdrop of the rocks.  Things did improve though…