Another brilliant day for droning, East of Lake Mead, Nevada

Taking advantage of this glorious calm weather while the rest of the country is freezing, I took off. Driving North to Mesquite, I branched off onto New Gold Butte Road, which runs 45 miles South--getting more rough every mile you drive.

But the sights and colors and structures are sublime. This is soft morning light on a formation known as White Pocket:

 

Later this afternoon, I returned and filmed White Pocket from the West, in afternoon light. the group of parked cars belong to a group of ATV drivers who passed me along the road.

 

 

 

Another site gave me a neat opportunity to cast the drone's shadow on a dramatic sandstone formation a few miles from White Pocket.

 

 

 

Then I drove another twenty miles South, where a dramatic, recently-formed sinkhole is known as the Devil's Throat. Here, I'm steering the drone high above it. The Toyota and I give you the scale of the hole.

 

 

Finally, several miles across really rough, stony roads brought me to a gorgeous location known as Little Finland, or Devil's Fire. On top of these cliffs are dramatic, if small, gargoyle-like stone formations similar to those I've seen in Utah's Fantasy Canyon and Goblin Valley . I need to find the route up the cliff so I can photograph the 'faces.'  It higher and steeper than it appears from the drone. Believe me, I looked carefully for a route up.

 

Which means I have to make another trip there! Woo-woo!

 

 

The drone is a magnificent new tool for photography, which I am finally competent enough to purely enjoy!