Ray Samson Home Movies: Three Valleys West -- Trailing Nature’s Grandeur

Duration: 600

Genre: home movie

Year Published: 1963

Creator: Ray Samson

Complete Record: The first part of this movie is on Heavenly Valley; a snow environment. Death Valley is interesting as many of the shots are from a RV of some sort so it has the feel of a road trip through Death Valley. The perspective from the cab of the vehicle is interesting and lends some G-forces to curves of the highway. Monument Valley is given a monumental status by having the camera on a tripod. The images are still looking, like the monuments themselves. There is a good section on Navaho sheep herding. Film ends back in snow country. ZABRINSKI POINT, DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK. As well as being a curious film by Antonioni (1970), Zabriskie Point is an elevated overlook of a colorful, undulating landscape of gullies and mud hills at the edge of the Funeral Mountains, a few miles from the edge of Death Valley - from the viewpoint, the flat salt plains on the valley floor are visible in the distance. In the past it was possible to drive right to the edge of the overlook, and several minutes of the film was set there, but since then a new larger car-park has been constructed lower down and visitors now have a short walk uphill. Most people do little more than briefly admire the scenery, which is best at sunrise, but it is possible to climb some of the adjacent hills to get a better overall view, or wander down amongst the variegated dunes. A foot-path leads through the mounds, down a ravine and into Gower Gulch after 2 miles, while another branch veers right into Golden Canyon. 20 Mule Canyon: From CA 190 just before Zabriskie Point, an unpaved 5 mile, one-way loop (the 20 Mule Team Road) leads into 20 Mule Canyon, where there are more colorful rocks, badlands and desolate mud hills, formed by evaporation of an ancient lake. The road is named after the teams of mules that once pulled wagons loaded with borax from mines on the valley floor.UBEHEBE CRATER, DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK: An unusual addition to the great variety of geological features in Death Valley National Park, the Ubehebe Crater system contains several volcanic craters, cinder cones and ash hills, all relics from an explosive steam eruption about 2,000 years ago, when rising magma met an underground lake. Ubehebe is by far the largest crater, 2,400 feet in diameter and 500 feet deep, and presents a very colorful spectacle with variegated, buckled strata around its sides and grey-black ash on the rim - especially pretty at sunset or sunrise. The region is located in the far north end of Death Valley, reached by a spur road off CA 190, just before the highway turns east and exits the park near Scotty's Castle. The Crater: The paved road to the crater ends at a parking area on the north rim, though an unpaved road continues, bending back south and heading towards various remote back country areas including The Racetrack, where large rocks roll seemingly unaided across a dry lake bed. Ubehebe Crater has a trail around the rim and a steep path down, though this does not look too exciting and certainly photography is best done from rim level. The crater is even more colorful in spring, when yellow and purple micro flowers grow amongst the jet black ash on the upper slopes. Other paths wind through more cinder cones and craters, such as the much smaller Little Hebe Crater, which cover an area of several square miles to the south. MONUMENT VALLEY, UTAH. Monument Valley is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of vast and iconic sandstone buttes, the largest reaching 1,000 ft (300 m) above the valley floor. It is located on the southern border of Utah with northern Arizona (around 36°59′N 110°6′W), near the Four Corners area. The valley lies within the range of the Navajo Nation Reservation, and is accessible from U.S. Highway 163. The Navajo name for the valley is Tsé Bii' Ndzisgaii (Valley of the Rocks). Great ski and ski lift images. POV engine of RR tracks.