Pinnacles, Mono Basin, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Rocky pinnacles above the immense Mono Basin, early morning.

As I have written before, my visits to the Eastern Sierra to photograph autumn color often lead me to other non-autumn subjects in the area, and frequently subjects further east than these mountains. That was the case again this autumn, and on more than one occasion I got up early in the morning and left the Sierra to explore the western edge of the basin-and-range country to the east.

The photograph doesn’t give this away, but it was a very cold morning! Temperatures at our campsite in a canyon on the east side were below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and as we headed out into the more open high desert landscape to the east we saw the thermometer drop to as low as 9 degrees! We arrived at a high overlook before dawn, witnessed the first light on the eastern Sierra crest, and realized that there was quite a bit of wildfire haze floating around. That left me focusing on closer subjects or at least including nearer subjects as foreground to the more distant views. Below our position an impressive set of small buttes stood on the gentle slopes above the distant Mono Basin and the hills beyond.

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 and Amazon.

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Above Mono Basin. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A long view into and across Mono Basin and Mono Lake in the early morning.

You certainly cannot tell from the photograph, but this was a very cold autumn morning in the region east of the Sierra Nevada crest. We work up at our camp in one of the Eastern Sierra canyons before dawn in temperatures that were around 20 degrees Fahrenheit — cold but not unusual for early October. We headed east, out past Mono Lake and then climbing into nearby mountains. Along the way the thermometer in our vehicle went as low as nine degrees! When you are only a few weeks past the end of summer, that feels very cold!

From this high point on a long ridge overlooking Mono Lake we could see a vast expanse from near to far. Just below us was a bit of conifer forest (and nearby some aspens), but the landscape here is mostly sagebrush country. Far below we looked across the two volcanic islands of this lake to its far shore, and beyond that the hills and mountains climbed here, with the most distant peaks (barely visible in the late-season wildfire haze) well above 10,000 feet.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.