The Moving Rocks

Getting to the Racetrack Playa requires commitment.

The drive from Furnace Creek takes about three hours. The last 27 miles are unpaved, rough, and notorious for shredding tires. You need high clearance, a spare, and the understanding that if something goes wrong out there, you're on your own. No cell service. No help coming.

I made the drive anyway. Some shots are worth the risk.

The sailing stones of Racetrack Playa have fascinated people for decades. Rocks weighing hundreds of pounds somehow move across this dry lake bed, leaving trails etched into the cracked mud. For years nobody knew how it happened. Scientists finally figured it out in 2014: thin sheets of ice form after rare rain events, and when conditions align perfectly, wind pushes the ice and the rocks slide along with it. The mystery solved, but the magic remains.

I arrived in the afternoon to scout. Walked the playa looking for rocks with interesting trails, checking compositions against where I knew the Milky Way would rise. Found a rock with a curved path leading toward another pair of stones in the distance. The trails told a story of movement frozen in time.

Then I waited.

Death Valley holds some of the darkest skies in California. As twilight faded, the stars came out in numbers you forget are possible. The galactic core rose over the distant mountains and settled into position above the playa.

The foreground exposure ran long to pull detail from the cracked mud and capture the rock trails under faint starlight. The sky came from stacked exposures to reduce noise.

Standing alone on that playa at 2 AM, surrounded by rocks that move when no one is watching, with the Milky Way overhead, I understood why people keep making that brutal drive.