Category Archives: News

Commentary, Locations, News

Bishop Aspen Creek Conditions – 10/3/09

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(Since posting this message I posted a later update on conditions during this period: “More Eastern Sierra Aspen Color Conditions“.)

I’m currently down in Bishop “doing email” at Starbucks for an hour or so during the harsh light time of the day, so I though I’d post a quick report on conditions in the Bishop Creek area today – along with some (semi-) educated guesses about what lies ahead.

I was up way before dawn this morning and heading up 168 well before the sun came up – there was a bit of light in the sky. My plan was to do “the aspen thing” very early, but as I drove I saw that the clouds were likely to light up in interesting fashion and that it looked like there was some light precipitation on the highest peaks that would soon be illuminated by the sun. So I took a detour out into the Buttermilks on Starlite Road, found a spot looking at Mt. Emerson (?), set up my shot, and waited. I figured that an almost sure thing here was worth a slightly later arrival at the aspens.

The clouds and the wind suggested that the weather forecast of, uh, clouds and wind was probably accurate… I soon finished shooting here and headed up 168. The wind strengthened, at some points blowing hard enough to raise dust clouds on the surrounding slopes. After passing through Aspendell, where the trees are still completely green, I began to see some color just above here. I’d say that it more or less begins above the Cardinal Resort, though the real color starts a bit higher.

I decided more or less spontaneously to try North Lake. I had heard that the “river of color” above the lake had mostly passed its prime and was partially brown, and I knew that the wind would interfere with photographs of the lake, but I also figured that some close-up photographs of sheltered trees might work. There was a fair amount of color along the first part of this road – I came back later and spent some time shooting there as the sun/shadow line approached – and again after the exposed section overlooking Aspendell. Clearly the trees that were further along in the color transitions have taken a bit of a beating from the wind, though there are still quite a few green trees and enough color among the others to make the trip worthwhile. (I also like shooting bare or nearly bare aspen trunks…)

I drove up toward Sabrina but did not stay, instead deciding that the road to South Lake might be more promising. I returned through Aspendell an then turned right to head toward South Lake. The trees before the small village a ways up the road are almost all completely green. Above this village some color starts, and eventually there were some very nice sections. While the conditions ranged from green to yellow to “leaves all gone” and included some brown leaves, there were still plenty of shooting opportunities. I eventually ran out of “good light” as the morning wore on, but I’ll likely had back up that way this afternoon and evening since I located several promising locations.

My general sense of the conditions is that they are a bit unusual. It seems to me that the elevation where the trees start to change color is a bit higher still than I would have expected – it surprised me a bit to see no color at Aspendell, for example. On the other hand, the color started fairly quickly above this level as I ascended. Yes, there are some brown leaves (though these, too, can be interesting photographic subjects) and yes, the wind is blowing down a lot of leaves. But even up high and close to the areas where the leaves have blown down I could find other sheltered groves with excellent color.

So, what now? The weather report still calls for much colder conditions tonight along with the possibility of snow flurries. I think that the aspen conditions in the higher areas are likely to deteriorate somewhat quickly if this holds. On the other hand, there is still a lot of green! The middle and lower elevations have largely not changed yet. Perhaps the change to colder conditions will trigger a change there – and those who are coming up in the next week will find great color.

On another topic: For the past few years Vern Clevenger has had a gallery a couple doors down from the Bishop Starbucks. This morning I saw that Vern is no longer there. I just checked his web site and see that his gallery has moved to Mammoth at 220 Sierra Manor Road #4. I guess that Bishop’s loss is Mammoth’s gain!

Locations, News

More Links to Current Eastern Sierra Fall Aspen Color Reports

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I’m catching up on some online reading this evening, and thought I’d share a list of some reports on eastern Sierra fall color that I’ve come across. In no particular order:

  • A quick eastern Sierra fall color update from Greg Russell/Alpenglow Images – Greg’s brief report mentions visiting the Bishop Creek area on Saturday along with visits to Rock Creek and June Lakes Loop.
  • Richard Wong offers a brief report on Bishop Creek Canyon Fall Color at the California Nature Photographers blog. (Yes, my report from this weekend is posted there, too.) Richard covers several areas in the Bishop Creek and North/South/Sabrina Lakes area.
  • The Eastern Sierra Fall Color group on Flickr includes a lot of recent on-the-scene photographs (you may be able to use them to make some decisions about your destination) and the discussion forum includes a lot of posts by those who are there and have been there recently. There is also an interesting thread on the all-important question of where to eat in the eastern Sierra! (Discussion forums only open to group members.)
  • Elizabeth Carmel’s Landscape Photography blog points out a Sacramento Bee Interactive Guide to Fall Colors. (The guide has some interesting and useful information – perhaps most importantly a map with many great aspen locations identified. However, the interactive part of the guide would be even more useful if the information was a bit more up-to-date. I wonder if they might think about building something like this with input from a larger group of photographers who are on the scene?)
  • Journal of My Travels for the Perfect Photo, Inge Fernau’s photography blog, has lots of good advice and reports on photographing Sierra aspens.
  • It looks like Carol Leigh may be updating her Fall Color in California page once again. This is one of the “classic” sites for locating information about this topic, and typically includes lots of reports from those in the field. (I’m wondering though, if it is a bit less current than in the past. (I recently sent an update last week and it never appeared on the page…)
  • Greg A. Lato has posted a sequence of three posts about his visit to the eastern Sierra. Visit his latoga Photography site and then look for the “recent blog posts” section lower on the page.
  • Leon Turnbull reports on a visit to the giant aspen groves at the top of Monitor Pass and a perhaps unfortunate abundance of certain other travelers while he was there. (The groves atop Monitor Pass are huge, and seem to me to be a bit less well-known than some of the areas further south. I was a bit surprised at his report that many of the trees had not yet changed colors, since I frequently find that they change here just a bit earlier than in some other locations on my circuit. A good aspen route is to go up over Carson Pass and then over Monitor to highway 395.)
  • The Life on the Eastern Slope blog mentions conditions in Lundy Canyon, Tioga Pass, and other nearby areas. (I drove past but did not enter Lundy Canyon on Sunday – I could see colors up high above Lundy, but cannot offer first-hand info on conditions down in the canyon. I also went over Tioga Pass twice and saw some pretty good colors just east of the pass, though colors down in Lee Vining Canyon have not changed yet.)
  • I mentioned it earlier, but it is worth mentioning that Michael Frye posted a bit of a guide to photographing fall colors in Yosemite. (For the record, if you are looking for great aspen photography opportunities, Yosemite is not your best choice. But there are other types of fall color in Yosemite that bring me back every year.)
  • Greg Boyer has posted his Fall Color Update #8 from Bishop. His view is that this coming weekend will likely be the prime time to shoot – which is pretty much in line with what I’m thinking. I would not be surprised to find that some areas in the upper Bishop Creek drainage will have lost leaves by then, but there are tons of trees a bit lower… and many other eastern Sierra areas should be in great shape. (But watch the weather – there is a chance of a change this weekend.) Other entries at Greg’s One Horse Studio blog also offer good information and perspectives on fall color.

Whew! I’m sure I’ve missed some other useful resources – feel free to share via a comment.

Commentary, Locations, News

A Brief Aspen Update (9/28/09)

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Although my main weekend photographic activity involved a short pack trip into the Cathedral Lakes in Yosemite (more later on that), I did manage a quick Sunday afternoon visit to some aspens in the Tioga Pass, Lee Vining, Conway Summit area. With that in mind, here is a short report on what I saw.

  • Tioga Pass – As you head east over Tioga Pass you begin to enter the “aspen zone” of the eastern Sierra. (There are aspens west of the crest, but very few in this area and fewer still along the road.) There are some specimens turning colors in roughly the Ellery Lake area, but the first really colorful trees are near the far end of the section of the road the traverses the headwall of Lee Vining Canyon. These are small trees, but some are quite colorful right now – with other still-green trees promising a bit more color yet to come. From this area I could also see more aspens (and other fall foliage) on higher ridges above the canyon.
  • Lee Vining Canyon – A bit later the large aspen groves down in Lee Vining Canyon will usually put on quite a show – and many of the trees growing in this lower elevation protected area are quite large. However, yesterday there was very little color down in the canyon. I could see a very few trees starting to turn, but that was about it.
  • Lundy Canyon – I did not enter Lundy Canyon on this trip since I had another goal in mind – so what I can report is based entirely on what I could see while driving by on highway 395. High on the ridges above Lundy Canyon there are some very colorful groves of trees. There appeared to also be some down closer to the entrance of the canyon. (I’ll post more concrete information about Lundy as soon as I can find it. Typically Lundy Canyon peaks a bit later than some of the other areas.)
  • Conway Summit – The huge groves of aspens right below the highway to the north of Conway Summit are barely starting to turn colors. I saw a very small number of yellow trees right near the road but the vast majority of the trees here still appear to be green. This bodes well for conditions in a week or so. However, the long view toward Dunderberg Meadow from here shows that the higher trees are changing and colors there may be peaking. (I could not investigate these upper groves more closely since the car I was driving is not equipped for travel on rough gravel roads.) South of Conway Summit there are some large and not very accessible groves that are turning colors quite dramatically, but it is next to impossible to find a place to pull over and photograph them.
  • Virginia Lake – The road to Virginia Lake leaves right from Conway Summit. Based on my visits in previous seasons, the trees along this road, especially up higher, tend to be among earliest to show color and then drop their leaves. I have arrived too late more than once! Yesterday, however, there were many trees showing very good color even along the upper sections of the road. There are also still a good number of green trees, so this show is probably not quite over. The first groves you come to shortly after leaving Conway Summit are currently at different stages of color. There is a parking area along the right side of the road in this area, and the trees parallel to the turnout on the right as you ascend are almost entirely green. However, across the road and just a bit further up there is a large and colorful grove where I photographed. Although there are still green trees here, there are also a few trees that have lost quite a few leaves. Another grove a bit higher alongside a creek at an obvious bend in the road is starting to look quite colorful, though the number of green trees suggests that there is still some good color to come.

UPDATE: For first time visitors to my site arriving via this page… I have posted several other notes on aspen hunting during the 2009 season:

Enjoy!

Commentary, News

The best laid plans…

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… sometimes fail. :-)

A number of things needed to fall into place today so that I could arrive at Cathedral Lakes in the Yosemite back-country this evening to meet a group of photographers. Reading the previous sentence you might think that I’m somehow posting from my tent after enjoying a nice backpacker dinner.

Not quite.

I teach. Classes started this week. Today I met my Friday-only class for the first time. My plan was to have everything packed for the weekend last night – check rather late by headlamp – check. To get up at the slightly-later hour and load the car for the trip – check. To leave for the college with enough time to stop for gas, get ready for my class, etc. – oops!

When I went to the car – after loading it, of course – I discovered a flat tire. By this time it was too late to deal with a repair and still make it to the college on time – I didn’t even have time to unload the car – so I simply had to take the other car, teach my class, and then come home to unpack and get the tire repaired. So, I’m not at Cathedral Lake tonight… where I’m sure it is quite beautiful and my friends are now enjoying the post-evening photography conversation.

At least I’m reasonably confident that the Sierra will still be there when I do make it up to Cathedral… soon.