Curved Dune, Eureka Valley, CA

Linda Butler

Linda Butler's dramatic photograph of sand dunes, carved into smooth, serptentine shapes by desert winds, is characteristic of her elegantly sparse imagery. It is reminiscent of Ansel Adams' "Sand Dunes, Sunrise, Death Valley" and may have been taken close to the same location.

The Eureka Valley Sand Dunes are located in the southern part of Eureka Valley, Inyo County, California, and were incorporated into Death Valley National Park in 1994. As with the Kelso Dunes of the nearby Mojave Desert, they are classified as "booming" or "singing" sand dunes, characterized by the sound created when silica-inclusive granules, measuring between 0.1 and 0.5 mm in diameter in a semi-humid environment, are rubbed together by wind or by footfalls. Only about 40 dune locations fall into this category worldwide.