Travel | Photography | Death Valley National Park

Ode to a Desert Flower

My encounter with the near-mythical Eureka Dunes evening primrose

A Eureka Dunes evening primrose stands boldly amid an expanse of sand, where one would least expect to encounter a flower of such remarkable beauty. (Photo: ©Craig K. Collins)

It’s about an hour before dawn in the middle of nowhere, and I’m preparing to trudge to the top of the steepest, highest sand dunes in North America.

Why?

I’m not sure, other than I’m in a surly mood and feeling a bit masochistic — this after having driven 400 miles to the extremely remote Eureka Sand Dunes at the northern edge of Death Valley National Park in order to take some fabulous Milky Way photos only to have a sheen of high-altitude cirrus clouds move in and completely ruin my plans.

I figure I might be able to salvage this trip with a few sunrise photos from atop the dunes.

I set off from my campsite in the dark and head toward a looming mountain of sand, whose silhouette is beginning to take form beneath the day’s first glimmer of light coming in from the east.

I grumble to myself as I go, my feet slipping in the sand as the slope of the dune rises gently before me.

I begin to sweat even in the morning chill, and after only a few hundred yards am forced to stop, take off my jacket, and stuff it into my daypack.