A Desert Engagement in Death Valley, California

As a California elopement photographer, part of my job is to find a variety of locations for my couples, whose interests in scenery range from open fields, to oceans and beaches, to mountains and trees, to vast expanses of desert - all of which California has! I’ll be honest — Death Valley National Park was never really on my list of places I personally wanted to visit; it wasn’t until recently that my desire to visit every National Park piqued my interest into Death Valley, which is a relatively short 4-hour drive from Los Angeles, CA. 

The thing with Death Valley, and you can probably guess by its name, is that it gets deathly hot in the summer. With summer fast approaching, our window of time to visit the park before it got dangerously hot (think temperatures in the 100’s, even hitting 120F!) was quickly closing, so we planned this shoot for a weekend in early April. You may or may not be surprised to know that even in early April, temperatures were ranging in the high 80’s, and on many days hitting 90 degrees Fahrenheit (roughly 32degC). The nights do get slightly cooler, but not by much.

For a place so morbidly named, I was honestly curious what Death Valley might look like, and was frankly very surprised at how pretty and interesting (and crowded!) it was. The drive into Death Valley from Lone Pine (Hwy 190) was incredibly scenic, and almost felt like we were descending into a giant pit as the road started winding downwards. (I don’t recommend doing this drive in the dark because the road does get pretty windy in one section, with steep drops off the side!)

Annie and Jon met me inside the park, and I had such a blast exploring this place with these two for their engagement session! We spent golden hour exploring these “painted” hills at Artists Palette, and blue hour at Badwater Basin - California’s very own salt flats and the lowest point in North America!

If you’re thinking of visiting or eloping in Death Valley National Park, stay tuned for an extensive blog post with all the information you need to know.

—

Dress by: Dalliance Bespoke