Aspens, First Autumn Snow. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 9, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
An early season storm brings snow to eastern Sierra Nevada aspen groves.
We made it to the eastern Sierra Nevada last week for the annual pilgrimage to photograph aspen color. We drove over on the day when the first winter-like storm of the season came to the range, and our travel plans changed accordingly. Normally we would cross the Sierra via Tioga Pass through Yosemite National Park. Although the Republican government shutdown closed the park, the trans-Sierra highway 120 remained open… until the night before our trip when it was closed in preparation for the forecast storm. When this pass closes – as it can often do in October, when early season storms drop a few inches of snow on the road – I have to consider options to the north: Sonora, Ebbetts, or Carson Passes. When we started out, Sonora was still open, but I figured that Carson was a better bet, as it is an all-season route. So we headed over Carson in the morning, encountering the first snow flurries well before the pass. From this point on, with the exception of a few lower elevation sections of our drive over Monitor Pass and then down highway 395 to Bishop, we were either in or near light snow.
This has been a slightly different year for aspens – though, to be honest, no two years evolve exactly the same way when it comes to the color transition. The highest trees had mostly lost their leaves, but we saw excellent color in many places all along the route. This color transition marks, for me, the reality that the warm season is over and California’s rainy, snowy, and colder season is coming. Being among the aspens during one of the first early season snow storms amplifies that effect, and we remarked on how sudden the transition was. Only a few days earlier it had been in the low 90 degree range in parts of Central California… and here we were in snow. I photographed the scene in this photograph as we reached the top of Conway Summit, the high point on highway 395 just north of the town of Lee Vining. Here one of the largest and most accessible aspen groves can provide an astonishing amount and variety of color for a few days each year. However, on this day the colors were distinctly muted by the falling snow.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Beautiful! Nice atmosphere and color.
You picked a good day for interesting snowy weather. Long day driving over Carson pass and back. Did you get to Bishop? Bishop park area with snowy peaks in background would have been nice.
Look forward to more images. Quite a change from the weekend before this when I was up there.
Wayne, it is a long drive to go over via that route, but in snowy conditions there sometimes isn’t a choice. Fortunately, it is also a very scenic drive, and I had lots of opportunities to photograph the falling snow. We did get to Bishop – stayed there a couple of nights, in fact – and we photographed in the Bishop Creek area, along with quite a few other locations.
More photographs will be coming before long…
Dan
Great opportunity and shot, Dan! Lovely time to be there and enjoy what mother nature has to offer. Looks like your timing was great! Hope you will be able to have enough time to get ready for 2013 SF Open Studios next weekend.
Thanks, Harvey. We had a great time on the east side and found many wonderful photographic subjects – and not all of them involved aspens!
Back home now and I have a plan worked out to be ready for our show this next week. See you there!
Dan
Awesome shot, Dan. Wish I could have caught the snow storms this year. Conway is one of my favorite places to get lost in the aspens as well.
Thanks, Gary. We were “lucky” to drive over to the east side on Wednesday, the day that it snowed straight through. Tioga, Sonora, and Ebbetts passes were closed, so we took the long way across via Carson and Monitor Passes and then down 395 to Bishop. It snowed almost continuously from just west of Carson Pass until just south of Mammoth. It was great! I love these conditions – much more than boring perfect weather – and we stopped frequently to shoot in the snow.
Like you, I’ve been shooting Conway for years – from the highway, from the road up from the summit, from Dunderberg Road, etc. Every year I tell myself “I’m done with Conway…” and every year I end up stopping again!
Dan
Gorgeous image! Makes me long for winter.