Tag Archives: backpack

High Elevation Forest Near Crabtree Meadow

High Elevation Forest Near Crabtree Meadow

High Elevation Forest Near Crabtree Meadow. Sequoia National Park, California. August 10, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of morning light in a high elevation forest between Wallace Creek and Crabtree Meadow on the John Muir Trail, Sequoia National Park, California.

keywords: forest, tree, shadow, needle, branch, log, high, altitude, elevation, timberline, trunk, morning, light, black and white, john, muir, trail, jmt, sequoia, national park, crabtree, meadow, wallace creek, hike, backpack, camp, california, usa, stock, cone

Evening, Upper Hamilton Lake and Kaweah Gap

Evening, Upper Hamilton Lake and Kaweah Gap
Evening, Upper Hamilton Lake and Kaweah Gap. Sequoia National Park, California. August 6, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Color photograph of Upper Hamilton Lake and Kaweah Gap as evening sun strikes peaks around the upper basin – Sequoia National Park, California.

Upper Hamilton Lake is located on the High Sierra Trail in Sequoia National Park, and is the traditional camping spot before climbing over Kaweah Gap on the ridge in this photograph. I arrived there on August 6, 2008 on the second day of nine-day trans-Sierra backpacking trip from Crescent Meadow to Whitney portal, and we left the next morning to climb the Gap and head to points east.

This photograph was made in the evening as the sun set, sending its light through the narrow opening of the canyon to the west toward the wall at the upper end of the lake – while the high ridge is still in sunlight the lake and surrounding slopes are already in shadow. The photograph was made from a position not more than ten or twelve feet from my campsite.

keywords: landscape, upper, hamilton, lake, kaweah, gap, great western, divide, ridge, mountain, pass, basin, cirque, water, reflection, evening, sunset, golden hour, blue, sky, clouds, forest, tree, brush, rock, talus, peak, alpine, sequoia, national park, california, usa, stock, backpack, hike, camp

Forest in Reflected Light, Kern River

Forest in Reflected Light, Kern River
Forest in Reflected Light, Kern River. Sequoia National Park, California. August 9, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

In the middle of my August 2008 trans-Sierra backpack trip we spent a morning walking up the 7.5 miles between Kern Hot Springs and Junction Meadow in the upper Kern Canyon. Since I’m fond of higher country I wasn’t expecting too much on this day, but I was happy to encounter a wonderful lighting situation that I’ve seen before in Yosemite and similar valleys: the western canyon walls were in full sunlight and reflecting beautiful, warm, diffuse light across the river into the shaded forest on the east side where I photographed these trees and ferns.

keywords: kern, river, valley, forest, tree, fern, branch, rock, trunk, red, morning, nature, landscape, sequoia, national park, california, usa, trail, hike, backpack, camp, high, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, stock

In the Queue

Having returned from my nine-day Sierra Nevada pack trip last week, I’m up to my eyeballs in photographs to review and work on. I’ve now picked off all the low hanging fruit (the photographs that seem to have immediate, obvious potential) and I’m now engaged in the more laborious task of going back through all of the images again and looking more closely at photographs that seem to have potential but which will take more thought and work.

I’ve posted a few of the backpack photographs already, and more should begin showing up here near the end of August.

A bit later I will post another product review. I’ve had the chance to use the Lowepro Nova 200 AW bag a few times this summer, and I’m anxious to use it a few more times so that I can post my report here. (This bag is designed more along the lines of a traditional camera bag, so it wasn’t part of my arsenal on the recent pack trip.)