Goblin Knobs, Nye County

Photographers yearn for the Golden Hour, when the oblique sunlight paints rich colors across the land at an angle. Most of the year, the Golden Hour waits within an hour of sunrise and sunset. But in the depths of winter, Golden Hour lasts all day.


Ever on the quest for quality photographs for the Wild Nevada calendar, at least as an excuse to get out and explore Nevada's most beautiful places, Friends of Nevada Wilderness board member, Kurt Kuznicki, and I head out for a few days camping between Christmas and New Years.

Our goal: the glory behind a name I have seen on maps for years, Goblin Knobs in the northern Reveille Range in Nye County. Let's just hope we have enough gear to keep us warm in the Arctic temperatures.

Buddists regard mountains as sacred, because they are home to the gods. In Japan, shrines adorned every mountain peak. Looking at this scene, I can see why they believe so.

Here's Kurt, happy just thinking about the water heating up for coffee.

We don't know how cold it got overnight, but the low in Tonopah, an hour to the west, was -1 F. Here's Beau, my night-time heating pad, enjoying the benefits of a Patagonia puffy vest and some Ruff Wear booties.

No, this isn't sunrise or a nuclear holocaust on the horizon. It's the glow from Las Vegas, 150 miles south. USA Today once called Tonopah the stargazing capital of the country. But here, an hour east of Tonopah's dazzling skyline, where the glow of Vegas was enough to affect this 30-second exposure and challenge Tonopah's reputation.

Turn the camera the other way, however, and the sky

darkens considerably. One amazing thing about this45-second exposure: it picks up stars I couldn't see with the naked eye. Give them some time to soak into the camera's sensor, and they come through.