Death Valley's Manly Beacon, often incorrectly called Zabriskie Point

This Death Valley feature is often incorrectly named, even among photographers, who should know better. You reach this feature by driving Highway 190 east from Furnace Creek, or west from the junction with Highway 127 into the park and reach it before Furnace Creek. The sign along the road tells you that you're turning off at Zabriskie Point, so many people assume that after they climb to the top of a hill with stone fencing around it that they're looking out at Zabriskie Point. Actually, that hill is Zabriskie Point and the feature on the horizon is called Manly Beacon. It's named after an early Death Valley explorer named Horace Manly. I've even seen posters with this feature in the photo and it's labeled Zabriskie Point, even though the point isn't in the photo, but instead it's showing the "Beacon". We hope to clear up this confusion.

Richard has been to Death Valley about 30 times, but we both feel there's a lot more to see. This is the largest National Park in the 48 states and has about 1000 miles of paved and dirt roads, not to mention the trails for hiking. This image of Manly Beacon was captured in January 2012. We hiked from the parking area to the top of the hill, Zabriskie Point, then came down hill a little bit from the top toward the badlands, so that Manly Beacon would be a little more prominent in the view and there would be a little more sky in the frame.There's actually a trail that goes by the shoulder of Manly Beacon and we did hike that trail, which crosses over into Golden Canyon. This trail forms a loop with Gower Gulch, the next canyon to the south, and we've done that hike a couple of times already.

Normally the sun around noon is not the best for taking photos, but since this was in January, the sun is naturally at a lower angle, making shadows a little longer and more noticeable. This one was taken around 1 PM.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.