This was the first image I captured on our road trip, and it certainly didn’t come easy. We had originally planned to photograph near Hanksville, but an unfavorable forecast forced us to change our plans. Instead, we took a gamble and drove nearly 500 miles from Salt Lake City to Death Valley National Park in search of clearer skies.

Unfortunately, luck wasn’t entirely on our side. A weather front moving in from the Pacific brought clouds and relentless winds, making conditions far from ideal. We eventually decided to try our chances on a plateau in the western part of the park, home to countless Joshua trees. Upon arrival, we were amazed by the landscape—these iconic plants stretched across the horizon as far as we could see.

The sky provided a spectacle of its own. The unusual, UFO-like clouds visible in the image are lenticular clouds, which form when strong, moist air flows over a mountain range and creates atmospheric standing waves on the downwind side. Their smooth, layered appearance often makes them look almost otherworldly.

Beneath the arching Milky Way, the Zodiacal Light can also be seen, along with several H-alpha emission nebulae glowing faintly in the background. Careful observers may even notice a few flaring Starlink satellites—an increasingly common sight in our night skies and an unavoidable part of modern astrophotography.

EXIF:

Sony A7IIIa

Sony 20mm f/1.8 G

Fornax Lightrack II

Sky: f/1.8, 120s, ISO 640 (7 panel panorama)

Ha: f/1.8, 120s, ISO 2500 (7 panel panorama)

Foreground: f/1.8, 120s, ISO 640 (7 panel panorama)

Location: Death Valley National Park, California

Date: 2026.04.11.

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