I’m in Bishop, California as I write this – taking advantage of a wireless connection point in a coffee shop and offloading RAW files to my laptop. While I’m waiting, how about a quick aspen report?
I drove up on Friday, arriving in Bishop rather late – fortunately I had made a reservation at a cheap hotel rather than doing my usual camping thing. An early-season front came in over night. I felt the first of it as I stopped at Tioga Pass on the way over, and the wind was howling as it only does when a front is coming in.
I was up way before dawn on Saturday and on the road to North Lake. The stars were out in Bishop, but clouds were extending out from the Sierra crest, and by the time I got to North Lake it was cloudy and gray. However, the air was still and since I like shooting in the very earliest light I got my gear out and started to work. I could see that the well-know aspen grove extending up the opposite hill from teh lake was in good shape. Within minutes the wind whipped up and it began to rain – and the rain quickly turned to snow. Not great shooting conditions, so I got back in my car and holed up waiting for a break.
Within an hour the weather broke a bit, turning into intermittent light snow, partial clearing, occasional sun, and wind, wind, wind. That big aspen grove on the other side of the lake appeared to lose half of its leaves in the first hour or two of this wind! That said, there are some great colors along the road at North Lake right now – but I think these leaves won’t last a long time.
Later in the day I went up toward South Lake, and the colors along this road were quite good just about everywhere, although the lowest trees in the valley had not turned yet. I’d say that this area is in its prime right now with only a few good days left in the upper section.
This morning I went back to North Lake and later visited Sabrina Lake. There were still wonderful colors throughout this area, with conditions ranging from some trees that have lost most leaves (something I like to photographs) to some that are still almost all green.
It was interesting to note how quickly the leaves change. The area around Aspendell, which is lower in the canyon, has seemed completely green yesterday. Today the section right above Aspendell was showing a lot of color, and some was starting to appear in the large grove at Aspendell itself.
Later today I’ll head back north, perhaps stopping at McGee Creek and/or the Rock Creek area, both of which I’ve been told have some very good colors. Then I’ll pass through the Conway Summit/Virginia Lake area before continuing north, with a current plan of shooting at Monitor Pass in the early evening.
PS – thank you for your help. Your previous comments really made a big difference for me on this trip!!!
Hi Dan, well, I went to Aspendell, North lake, Sabrina Lake, and South Lake last week and found great stuff to photograph in those areas. June Lake was all but a complete bust for me and Lundy Canyon wasn’t much better. I did find a lot of color at Rock Creek though but only took a couple of pictures as I was really tired at that point. I was getting up at 5AM everyday while I was there and after awhile those hours start to catch up to me. But I had a great trip and even though the colors weren’t there for every location, I still think the area is just gorgeous. And when I drove through Yosemite last Monday, I hit Tuolomne Meadows just at sunset and the alpenglow on the far hills was just unbelievable. Add to that a gorgeous misty fog rising from the meadow and it was a scene to die for. I tried shooting it first with my XPan but in my excitement I forgot to take the lens cap off (being a range finder camera you don’t look through the lens so you can’t tell, arrggghhhh). By the time I figured that out the sun had set and the color was gone. Oh well.
And I hate to say it but I also hit really flat early morning light. I got some good golden color on the peaks over Convict Lake at sunrise on Wednesday and got a pretty good picture there. But everywhere else, including the Alabama Hills at Lone Pine had just a flat ugly light at sunrise and it might as well have been a fluorescent light rising instead of the sun. Just as well I guess, as Mount Whitney was encased in clouds from the storm Saturday morning and refused to come out. So I wrapped up my trip, had breakfast at the Totem Cafe, and drove home south through Tehachipi as 120 was reported closed.
Oh, one other thing. After checking out of the Lake View at Lee Vining on Wednesday, I decided to do some sightseeing at Mammoth on my way to Bishop and I ended up driving up to that Minaret overlook area. Just as I took the turn up to the overlook there were all these sheriff cars, search and rescue cars, a fire engine, and a helicopter. I hadn’t been following any news during my trip and didn’t know what was going on. At first I just assumed they were training as I had seen that before at Henry Coe. But a fellow up there told me a hiker had found Steve Fossett’s ID and papers and they were searching for the plane. The helicopter took one trip out to the crash site area and back while I was there but I don’t know if they had found the plane at that point. But it was a surprise to me, to be there when that was going on. Who would have thunk it!