20 x 30 1/8"

1988

My friend Andrew Hunt and I visited this dune out of whimsy on our way back from a somewhat aimless driving trip around the Mojave Desert. It's at the south end of the Owens Valley, southeast of Lone Pine. The underlayment of the dune is an outcropping of dark rust red basalt. The individual rocks have rippled faces sculpted by some past enormous volcanic explosion, with details sandblasted into them by the near ceaseless windblown sand tumbling along the surface.

This particular rock was oriented right into the prevailing wind, and had a clearly defined wake behind it, a void in the dune's ripple structure. 

Original available