I got up well before the sunrise to have time to make an arduous trek up the tallest sand dune, more than 700 feet above my camp. My Mazda was covered in ice after the rain from the previous night froze up. It was calm and I could see lots of stars in the sky. As I was getting ready to go, I noticed that a cone of light from my headlamp became visible. When I finally hit the sand, the fog was getting pretty dense. I emerged out of it as I climbed higher. Occasionally, the wind would blow it up the dunes and make everything around me disappear, and moments later it would be gone again....

When the sun finally climbed above the peaks of the Last Chance Range, the striking geometry of the sand dunes was revealed. All I could do was stand there and marvel at the beauty in front of me. Frost covered ridges and ripples of sand and the fog below combined into a sight I would remember for a long time. Another hiker climbed the main ridge in the distance, adding a sense of scale of this vast place.

As the sun climbed higher, I followed the ridge toward the fellow hiker. It seemed the sun would burn off the fog anytime, but an abundant moisture and inversion kept the magic going.

When the sun rays crested a ridge I was standing on, I noticed that my shadow was projected onto the fog below and surrounded by a glory. This rainbow like phenomenon is caused by diffraction and can often be seen from an airplane that is flying low above the clouds. This was the first time I noticed it with myself being a centerpoint of it.

The fog finally started disappearing around 10:30 as I started my return to the camp. The fog must have swallowed the other campers since my tent and I were alone in the wilderness.

The was no fog like the previous day, and no real colorful sunrise, but clouds decorated the sky. I went up the main ridge for the third time in three days. It was calm and I had the dunes all to myself. Gradually the wind picked up, and when I returned to camp, the wind gusts where whipping me with clouds of dust and sand.

The windy conditions seemed to be telling me to go. Packing the tent by myself in the howling wind seemed harder than it should have been. I again bid a good-bye to the dunes and drove back up the Eureka Valley. I made numerous stops along the Death Valley Road on the way up the Inyo Mountains to enjoy the scenery around, including groves of Joshua trees and cholla cacti next to the road.