Trona Pinnacles, California

If you're driving anywhere near Ridgecrest, California, be sure to stop by the Trona Pinnacles. More than 500 tufa formations on a river bed that dried up 10,000 years ago. You can hike around, marvel at the desert weirdness, and if you're lucky to arrive a couple days after a rainstorm—see some wildflowers. More here.

Lime Ridge Oak - Walnut Creek, California

Walnut Creek is surrounded by several open-space ranges and they're brilliantly emerald green thanks to a few rain storms in the past month (another one on the way, but not enough, unfortunately, to mitigate California's current drought). This one oak has managed to avoid annihilation as a sapling by roaming herds of cattle. It stands alone. I admire its twisty branch formations.

Death Valley National Park, California

Some photos from our April, 2014 trip. It had rained the night before and there were actual puddles (two that I saw, about the size of a manhole cover) at Badwater Basin, lowest point in the United States. There's a snail in these sporadic puddles, that exists nowhere else on earth. I studied the nearest puddle earnestly, but spied no snails. It has been an exceptionally dry year here in California and I think the snails are hiding in the rare mud.

More on our Southern California desert tour here.

Badwater Basin (282 feet below sea level) and the Devil's Golf Course—both former lake beds from several thousand years ago, now coated in salt and mineral deposits.

Mesquite Flat sand dunes, about 120 feet tall.

Natural Bridge and Marble Canyon.

Furnace Creek Resort features the lowest point for golf in the U.S. (214 feet below sea level). Date palms in the background. When traveling through this desert region, be sure to try some fresh dates—delicious.

Joshua Tree National Park, California

April, 2014

Mono Lake - Spring, 2014

I just returned from a 1,500-mile road trip to California's coast, southern deserts and Eastern Sierras, and I took many, many photos. Editing down my thoughts and images from the trip has been, what I'd call, a task. So here's Mono Lake, because it's simple and direct.

Mono Lake, technically, is anything but simple, being full of salt, seabirds, tufas, and decades-long water-rights issues between conservationists and Los Angeles consumers—but as a photo subject—it is simply the eternal muse. I will never tire of gazing at Mono Lake. It is full of magical moments. You just have to show up.