I’m back from a short trip to Death Valley, a favorite getaway, a place I love to go to quiet the nerves and tame the ego. The place has that effect because it makes you feel inconsequential, helpless, and out of place. It also happens to be a place of spellbinding beauty. Here are a handful of photos from the trip.

In some parts of Death Valley, you feel as if you have the whole place all to yourself.

The play of sun and shadow at Zabriski Point is mesmerizing.

Furnace Creek is an otherworldy oasis in the heart of Death Valley.

Badwater was bone dry this year.

One of the curious moving rocks at Racetrack Playa.

It was my first time at the Eureka Sand Dunes, a magnificent place where time seems to stand still.

Here I am climbing one of the Eureka dunes. (Photo by D.H.)