High Country Lake. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.
An alpine lake sits in a treeless bowl below the Sierra Crest, Yosemite National Park.
This is a very remote lake high in the Yosemite Sierra backcountry. For years I had visited areas a few miles away and thought about going here. Finally, on this trip — when I was again base-camped at that close location — I took a morning to wander over this way and explore this rocky basin with its shallow lake.
I looked at my map, pointed “that way,” dropped over a short ridge into forest, and headed toward this bowl. I was far from the first person to go here, but there was no trail and barely any traces of other people. (Perhaps I missed a more obvious route?) After a bit of bushwhacking the route began to climb up toward the lake and gradually open as the trees thinned. I arrived to nearly perfect solitude and silence, broken by the song of a bird or two and occasional shouts from climbers high above on a nearby peak.
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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