Lake and Pinnacles, Evening. Kings Canyon National Park. July 30, 2010. © Copyright 2010 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Evening light reflects surrounding pinnacles in the surface of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake
This photograph takes me back to a long southern Sierra backpacking trip I took with friends back in 2010 — a trip from which I have recently shared a few other photographs. We entered the backcountry of Kings Canyon National Park from the east over one of the high Sierra crest passes, a few days later crossed another even higher pass to enter the upper Kern River drainage, spent a few days in a very remote portion of this area, and then exited back to the east over the crest by way of one of the more notorious east side passes — not the most notorious one, but definitely on the short list of awful passes… in a wonderful way. ;-)
The lake in this photograph was the site of our first night camp, after we came over that first pass and dropped to this beautiful sub-alpine valley with its lakes, meadows, rocks, and small trees. We settled in to this first camp… and into the familiar and welcome patterns of a long trip into the backcountry. These include camaraderie among friends who have shared many backpacking experiences, purposefully purposeless wandering around the wilderness neighborhood, sitting on rocks and staring, and watching the day transition to evening and then night.
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.
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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.
I know this lake and area well Dan. I spent a night under one of the worst thunderstorms I have encountered in the Sierra on the south shore near the Pinnacles with my, at the time, 10 year old son. He loved it! It’s all part of the “Sierra Experience” one would say! Thanks for the memory.
You are welcome! Those memories are fun — even those associated with things like awful storms. I also have quite a few associated with that particular place, including a storm related one. Some years ago a small group of friends and I did 9-day trip that began by crossing Bishop Pass into Dusy Basin and then heading south on the JMT over Mather, Pinchot, Glen, and Kearsarge Passes before exiting at Onion Valley. We mostly had fine weather, but I recall that on our second-to-last day, as we came over Glen Pass, the thunderstorms began and we walked in rain all the way up to these lakes, arriving and setting up our last night’s camp in the wet — and crawling into damp tents, wearing damp clothes, to sleep in damp sleeping bags. And then we awoke the next morning to glorious sunlight and crossed the pass, feeling somehow more connected to the Sierra than we could recall.
Two other quick stories. My oldest son took his first long backcountry trip with me when he was in his late teens — we came in over Kearsarge, headed south over Forrester, and summited Whitney on the way out. He has always been a formidable walker and hiker, and by the end of the trip he cruised up Whitney faster than I could. But on the first night at Keaarsarge he came under the influence of altitude sickness (probably inherited from me, as I’m also susceptible at first) and ended up so sick that he went into the tent and didn’t come out until the next day. On one other trip through there we had a fun experience with mama bear and a cub or two (not certain how many now) who wandered casually right through out camp, checking out the food canisters before continuing on their way.
Dan