Monthly Archives: August 2008

Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Forest in Reflected Light, Kern River

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Kern River Forest
“Forest in Reflected Light” — Forest scene along the Kern River in Sequoia National Park, California

In the middle of my August 2008 trans-Sierra backpack trip we spent a morning walking up the 7.5 miles between Kern Hot Springs and Junction Meadow in the upper Kern Canyon. Since I’m fond of higher country I wasn’t expecting too much on this day, but I was happy to encounter a wonderful lighting situation that I’ve seen before in Yosemite and similar valleys: the western canyon walls were in full sunlight and reflecting beautiful, warm, diffuse light across the river into the shaded forest on the east side where I photographed these trees and ferns.

A bit more about this trip. I had previously done this route — the High Sierra Trail — from the western reaches of Sequoia national Park, over the Kaweahs, down into the Kern, the up and over the Sierra Crest with a side trip to Mt. Whitney before exiting at Whitney Portal. This time I went with a group of backpacking friends, and it was wonderful to revisit this landscape.

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Site News

In the Queue

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Having returned from my nine-day Sierra Nevada pack trip last week, I’m up to my eyeballs in photographs to review and work on. I’ve now picked off all the low hanging fruit (the photographs that seem to have immediate, obvious potential) and I’m now engaged in the more laborious task of going back through all of the images again and looking more closely at photographs that seem to have potential but which will take more thought and work.

I’ve posted a few of the backpack photographs already, and more should begin showing up here near the end of August.

A bit later I will post another product review. I’ve had the chance to use the Lowepro Nova 200 AW bag a few times this summer, and I’m anxious to use it a few more times so that I can post my report here. (This bag is designed more along the lines of a traditional camera bag, so it wasn’t part of my arsenal on the recent pack trip.)

Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Ascending to Kaweah Gap

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Ascending to Kaweah Gap
“Ascending to Kaweah Gap” — Caroline Reutter passes wildflowers on the High Sierra Trail as the route ascends to Kaweah Gap

My friend Caroline ascends the High Sierra Trail toward Kaweah Gap above Upper Hamilton Lake in Sequoia National Park, California on the morning of the third day of a 9-day trans-Sierra pack trip from Crescent Meadow to Whitney Portal.

The High Sierra Trail crosses the entire range between Crescent Meadow in the west and Whitney Portal in the east, and travels through Sequoia National Park with the exception of the section to the east of Whitney Trail Crest. This portion above Upper Hamilton Lake ascends about 2500′ rather steeply to Kaweah Gap, a beautiful pass over the Great Western Divide by which the trail reaches Big Arroyo and the Kern River drainage.

In this photo Caroline has finished most of the very steep initial ascent above Hamilton Lake and is crossing an area of many streams and meadows and flowers shortly before arriving at Precipice Lake, from which it is only a short distance to the Gap.

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Equipment

Photo Kit on the Trail

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danwithtoploadtripodwhitney200808111

Dan Mitchell on Mt. Whitney. Sequoia National Park, California. August 11, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

I have written elsewhere on this site about the gear I use, including the setup I use for backpacking, so I thought it might be interesting to show a photo of the gear in action, so to speak. This photo shows me on Mt. Whitney in August 2008 with the whole basic kit: Lowepro Toploader AW containing Canon EOS 5D with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS and Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L and a few other small items such as CP filter, remote release, extra batteries. The tripod is a Velbon 540 carbon-fiber unit with 4-section legs to which I’ve attached the Acratech Ultimate Ballhead. In more typical situations the tripod rides on my backpack, but here we had left backpacks a couple miles back so that we could go light to the summit. (Yes, the tripod makes a serviceable walking stick if necessary… ;-)

We reached Mt. Whitney not from the usual east side Whitney Portal route but rather via a nine-day trip from the west across the Sierra from Crescent Meadow in Sequoia National Park. This followed my route from the first time I ascended Whitney 30 years earlier. I have been up in a few more times in the interim. Ironically, a year earlier this 2008 trip I had finally decided that there are so many other fine things to see and do in the Sierra that continuing to repeat Whitney climbs no longer appealed to me – and then my buddies contacted me and said, “Want to do Whitney from the west?” Sucker than I am, I said “yes.”

And how about that stylin’ hat, no? ;-)

(Thanks to my buddy, Owen Lee, for using my camera to make this photo.)