Winter Wetlands. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Flooded winter wetlands with broken-down tules .
Places like this fascinate me. The location is in California’s Great Central Valley, a 400+ mile long feature running up and down the state, separating the coastal mountain ranges from the Sierra Nevada. Most people are probably familiar with it from driving through or across it on their way to some other place. It is largely agricultural, though these days population centers are expanding rapidly and parts of the valley are increasingly urban. Bottom line? It is hardly a place that most people would regard as a scenic attraction.
I get it. And most of my visits are more of the “passing through” than the “going there” sort — except in winter when I often make it my destination. Winter provides a relief from the valley’s generally hot and dry climate during most of the year, and wet areas appear when rain falls, especially where rivers meet and were old marshes once existed. The soft light and the expansive sky can be a relief from the urban experience. Here, wetland ponds are full from recent rains, and interesting tule islands stand where someone has chopped town the vegetation before the pond was flooded.
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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
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