Fall Color in Eastern Sierra -- Sept. 2008

We took a quick trip during late September to the Bishop Creek area of the Eastern Sierra. On the first day, we took a short hike to Bull Lake (near South Lake), and Chocolate Peak was in the lake. (Remember to click on the picture if you want to see a larger version and then hit "back.")



We weren't able to hike as far as we had planned because we kept having to stop and admire the aspens. All of the pictures that you see here are unaltered -- this is how it really looked. The next few shots were taken on the east side of South Lake:





We could look down the cliff through the orange aspen and toward the turquoise water of the lake; if this scene had not been painted by nature, it could have been criticized as too garish:





The next day, we drove over to North Lake. From the road up to the lake, we could see Mount Darwin and Mount Powell:



The entire canyon of the north fork of Bishop Creek was covered in aspens:



The volcanic Piute Crags lined the north side of the canyon:



The south wall of the canyon was granite; there are so many big peaks in this area that this 12,000 foot crag near Loch Leven does not have a name -- how about Finger Peak?



Later that afternoon, it started to get stormy. Here is the same view of Mount Darwin (see above) on a cloudy afternoon, instead of a sunny morning:



The next morning was showery, which (paradoxically) seemed to make the colors even more intense:



(If you're wondering how we obtained the time exposure of the water, I use a neutral density filter, which allows me to slow down the lens speed.) After hiking along the creek, we went up to Lake Sabrina. The granite walls of the canyon were wet and dark:



As soon as we hit the trail, a thunderstorm rolled in over Mount Darwin:


More than five years later, I edited that shot in Lightroom - this is closer to the real thing:

The hike to Long Lake was a little soggy, but it cleared up for a few moments here and there:



The lake reflected Mt. Goode, a 13,000 foot peak (on the left) and Hurd Peak (on the right):



As we approached the 11,000 foot level, the rain turned to sleet -- note the stylish hefty bag:



The sun came out briefly in the afternoon, above Lake Sabrina:



During the night, there was more rain (and snow at the higher elevations). The next morning, we could see the top of Mt. Tom from the campground:



We headed up to the North Lake area again to do a different hike; once again, the view of Mount Darwin from North Lake Road was astounding, with snow in the higher elevations:



We were surprised to find aspens reflected in Grass Lake; none of the guidebooks mentioned them:



Years later, I re-edited that shot in Lightroom:

Later that day, the sun came out as we crossed Bishop Creek:



Here are two more shots of the creek, edited years later in Lightroom:

That evening, we drove south to the Lone Pine area, staying at Tuttle Creek, a primitive Bureau of Land Management campground in the shadow of Lone Pine Peak near Mount Whitney:



Perhaps not too surprisingly, the stars in the high desert were brilliant. Here is Jupiter, along with the Milky Way, over the Sierra crest:

(This was a 30 second time exposure, and I set the ISO to 3200. Apparently, with enough time, the camera can see colors in the Milky Way that are not ordinarily visible to the eye.) The next morning, we watched the sun come up over the White Mountains to the east and catch the Sierra to our west:


This is almost the same shot, edited in Lightroom (more than five years later):

Eastern Sierra, July 2008

We spent about a week near Bridgeport, Calif., camped at about 9400 feet in the Toiyabe National Forest. This was true "boondocking" -- no campground, no water, no nothing -- we had to bring it all with us. Very cool, quiet and peaceful (except for a few folks on dirt bikes):



Our first hike was up to the top of the Virginia Lakes Basin -- the area above treeline (about 11,200 feet) was wild and windblown:



The Lundy Lakes area was filled with waterfalls and wildflowers:



These are columbines:




I am told that this is foxglove:




These are leopard lillies:



We next hiked the Green Lakes basin -- we made it all the way up to East Lake in the Hoover Wilderness on a hot day:



We headed over to Tioga Pass in Yosemite and hiked the Twenty Lakes Basin, mostly above the treeline:



On our way south, we stopped off at Rock Creek. Mt. Morgan lies to the southwest of the canyon:



Our last hike was up to Kearsarge Pass from Onion Valley, a 10 mile round trip with a 2500 foot elevation gain up to 11,760 feet:



The trail was very well graded and maintained, but it was a big day for us. Felice relaxed by a stream while I took endless "wildflower & waterfall" pictures:

Mammoth Lakes, June 2008

In June of 2008, we camped for almost a week at Coldwater campground near Mammoth Lakes at 9100 feet -- very cool, quiet, and breezy. The campsite was between two rushing streams; the snow in the higher elevations was melting fast, and the streams were full. We started with a day of mountain biking, which turned into snow biking. (Remember to click on the pictures to enlarge, and click "back" to get back to the blog.)




We then hiked up to Emerald Lake:





Almost every hike we took was in the Mammoth Lakes basin, near the campground. The 11,500 foot Mammoth Crest hovered over everything:




The stream flowing into Arrowhead Lake tumbles over basalt blocks:




I took a lot of time exposures of the cascade. (For the benefit of folks with a digital SLR and a lot of patience, these were taken at about a half second at about f 32 (not 3.2!), with an ISO of 200.)



After clambering up next to the cascade, we got ambitious and headed out for Duck Pass at about 10,800 feet. The trail switchbacked up the head of the canyon through snowfields:



This was a pretty adventurous hike for us because we had to find our own way and because it was a long hike -- about 10 total miles, with about 1800 feet of elevation gain at high altitude. Also, the day was cold, windy, and semi-stormy; we could hear thunder in the distance, and we could see rain over Tioga Pass to the north. We later found out that the lightning caused about 800 fires throughout Northern California. The clouds were pretty cool, though:

On another hike, we went down into the Devil's Postpile area to Minaret Falls and Rainbow Falls:



On our way back to Southern California, we hiked up McGee Creek. Not a lot of shade, but some great views and lots of wildflowers:




Up above the 9000 foot level, we came upon a lake created by a beaver dam. The beaver lodge is the little mound in the middle of the lake; we waited to see if the beavers would show up, but they were apparently on vacation:

Zion and Grand Canyon, May 2008

We spent 10 days in Utah and Arizona for our 30th anniversary. (We took hundreds of pictures; here are just a few. Remember to click on the pictures to enlarge them, and then click "back" to get back to the blog. Some of them look better when enlarged.)

We got to Zion at sunset on a stormy Thursday evening:




The next day, Friday, we hiked in the rain. Eventually, the sun came out on the wildflowers:




On Saturday, we were off to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on a showery and snowy day:







After spending Saturday night in an RV park in Jacob Lake, we found an isolated boondocking site near the East Rim:





How isolated? This is a view of the trailer from halfway down our quarter- mile "driveway," which branched off of a remote dirt road:




On a blustery Sunday evening, we took a sunset bike ride from our campsite to the East Rim Viewpoint:




On Monday, we hiked a couple of miles down into the canyon on the Kaibab Trail to a natural tunnel:





On Tuesday, we hiked the Widforss Trail, 10 miles long but not too hilly:




On Wednesday, we moved the trailer about 25 miles to the west on the Rainbow Rim at Locust Point:






If you click on that picture to enlarge it, you can see daylight under the trailer hitch. That's the rim itself. Here is the view from the door of the trailer:




We set up our lounge chairs on a windy ledge next to the trailer:







Our campsite was on Locust Point, in a lush Ponderosa pine forest. There were one or two other groups camping in the area; for some of the time, we were the only people within 20 miles:





Since we were spending several days away from civilization, we had no place to put our trash. We had to hang it up in a tree to keep the animals away:




For the next two days (Thursday and Friday), we rode the Rainbow Rim trail, which follows the rim around five points that resemble five fingers of the plateau overlooking the canyon. The trail meanders in and out of the forest:





Because it was only late May, the wildflowers were not yet in full bloom , but almost all of the snow had melted and the meadows were green:



We got up at 5 a.m. one morning to watch the sunrise:


This is almost the same shot, edited five years later in Lightroom:

The rides (over 18 miles each day) were challenging but exhilarating:





On Saturday, we headed back toward home through Zion and stopped to ride to the end of the canyon and back. This is one of our favorite road rides, since there is no traffic, the road is great, and the scenery can't be beat: