Tag Archives: autumn

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Mount Conness, Early Evening Thunderstorms

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Mount Conness, Early Evening Thunderstorms

Mount Conness, Early Evening Thunderstorms. Yosemite National Park, California. September 9, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early evening thunderstorms above Mount Connesss, as seen from near Vogelsang High Sierra Camp, Yosemite National Park, California.

As most of California was heading back home on Labor Day, I was heading to the Sierra Nevada for a late-season four-day pack trip into the Yosemite National Park back-country around the Fletcher Lake/Vogelsang High Sierra Camp area. I got off to a very late start and didn’t get on the trail up Lyell Canyon until nearly 5:00 p.m., so it was dark when I finally arrived at the Ireland Lake trail junction to make camp and fix dinner – and, a bit later, to be serenaded by coyotes.

The next day I headed up the Ireland Lake trail to spend a night at Evelyn Lake and then move the following day to Fletcher Lake, the location of the Vogelsang High Sierra Camp. The situation at Fletcher Lake exemplifies much of what I love about late-season Sierra backpacking. During the high season this is a very popular place: a few dozen people stay at the facilities of the high sierra camp and many more backpackers camp nearby – it can be a very busy place! But the high sierra camp shuts down after Labor Day (they were dismantling the tents when I arrived) and the number of backpackers drops dramatically.

But for a photographer, many other special things happen at this time of year as well. While some may lament the passing of the rich green plants of these meadows, I love the golden color that lasts for a few weeks between early September and the coming of the first snow only weeks later – and the spots of green you do find are even more special. The weather cools and there is something special about the light that I can’t quite define – perhaps it is the lower angle of the sun or maybe some change in the weather conditions.

This photograph was made in the early evening on the day I arrived at Fletcher Lake. My usual practice is to set up camp and have an early dinner and then grab the camera equipment as “golden hour” approaches and go to work. I had been focused on the camp chores and hadn’t noticed these clouds until I picked up the camera! Here two large cells, perhaps beginning to dissipate as the day ended, were towering above Mount Conness and the Sierra crest.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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California Fall Color

Calphoto – a quick note

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It looks like the Calphoto Fall Color in California page is back up and running with lots of updates. This has been one of the best California fall color sites for several years, and if you visit right now you’ll see lots of useful reports.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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

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!