Mount Tom, Tungsten Hills. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Mt. Tom and the Tungsten Hills along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada.
This photograph memorializes one of a series of very dry winters in California, a period many of us remember as the great drought. For five years little rain fell in most of the state and in other parts of the West. The Sierra Nevada snowpack suffered, and consequently the forests were decimated and water shortages were a very real concern everywhere.
The view of the Sierra seen here is what you might typically see at some point in June or even a bit later, when the winter snow pack has diminished to the point that high country travel starts to become easier. But this was early January! I passed through here on my way home from Death Valley and recall being shocked at the bare peaks on the east side of the range.
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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