A bed of ferns grows at a trail junction under deep redwood forest cover at Muir Woods National Monument.
This photograph was made in the late winter of 2009, during that time of the year when the redwood forest is still very wet and cool, but when flowers are blooming and spring is clearly on the way. The location is along the very popular (and often quite busy) main trail along the creek through the central part of the park. No doubt I had to wait a bit for the combination of these beams of light and no other visitors on the trail!
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A boulder sits in the still water of an unnamed sub-alpine lake in the Upper Kern River Basin as the sunset light streams over the Great Western Divide.
This photograph comes from a week-long pack trip with a group of friends into the southern Sierra Nevada, this year’s installment of our ongoing annual back-country trips. After crossing over 11,760′ Kearsarge Pass and then 13, 200′ Forester Pass we entered one of my favorite parts of the Sierra back-country, the high plateaus of the upper Kern River basin. This area is surrounded by peaks rising as high as 14,000’+ in almost all directions and the view is expansive because much of the area is a very high plateau with nearly level areas at and above 12,000′.
I have been in this general part of the Sierra many times, going all the way back to my college days when I came over Forester Pass for the first time. On this year’s trip we followed the usual John Muir Trail route down to Tyndall Creek and camped there on day 3. From here we decided to spend the next couple of days exploring a little-visited area to the west where the Kern River has its source and just below the impressive peaks of the Great Western Divide. The lake in this photograph is one of several beautiful but unnamed small lakes in the area in which we camped. Peaks of the Great Western Divide are beyond as sunset light streams between them.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Two backpackers descend through sub-alpine meadows toward the peaks of the Great Western Divide near Milestsone Basin, Sequoia National Park.
My two friends, Caroline and Owen, head through a lovely sub-alpine meadow toward the peaks of the Great Western Divide and the upper Kern River drainage of the Sierra Nevada in early August. (When doing backpacking photography it is always good to be accompanied by friends with colorful gear! My clothing color scheme is not conducive to photography, consisting mostly of colors that match the rocks, grasses, and dirt…)
This is a spectacular and less-visited area of the Sierra, being very high and at least two days from any trailhead – and those trailheads lead over very high Sierra crest passes. We hit it at perhaps the peak of its seasonal beauty – despite the clouds of mosquitoes, everything was tremendously green. Even in the late morning hour – not typically the time for photography – the scene was quite something. Our trail here passed through a succession of small, intimate meadows surrounded by rolling hills and filled with scattered glacial rocks, occasionally passing by small lakes and tarns — perhaps my favorite kind of Sierra terrain!
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Evening sky over the Great Western Divide reflected in an unnamed alpine lake, Sequoia National Park, California.
I don’t know quite what to say about this area of the Sierra located just east of the Great Western Divide in the upper reaches of the Kern River drainage – I’ve been very close to here on many previous trips, but I never quite managed to hop the intervening ridge even though I’ve thought vaguely about visiting this area for decades and I once passed through the lower reaches of it, more or less by accident and completely unaware of what was just upstream.
A group of us traveled over Kearsarge Pass (11,700’+) and Forrester Pass (13, 200′) to arrive in the upper Kern at Tyndall Creek along the JMT. (I think the general area is also known as the “bighorn plateau.”) I’ve been here on several previous occasions while heading to or circumnavigating Mt. Whitney. While I’ve gone east (to exit over the very rough Shepherd Pass at 12,000′) I’ve not really explored west and north of this area. Our general plan on this trip was to rectify that, specifically by visiting remote and very high Lake South America. After wandering up a mosquito-infested valley, climbing its headwall, and then dropping to a lake just below the saddle we made it to Lake South America. We had originally planned to stay here overnight, but the very barren and rocky surroundings didn’t attract us in the end, so we decided to head on to the west and south.
After a bit of a walk on a somewhat rough trail (which got much rougher later on) we arrived at a series of timberline lakes overlooking the Great Western Divide, which towered above us to the west. There is much I could say about this area, but I’ll limit myself to a few comments… and not name the specific location we visited. We finally found a sandy camping spot between a few lakes and tarns – it was surrounded by stunning alpine views ranging from the lakes themselves and the surrounding rocky meadows and clumps of trees to the jagged and high peaks to our west. The next morning we followed a very faint trail down the canyon, passing almost continuously through astonishing scenery featuring intimate, granite-surrounded meadows and small lakes.
I must go back. It won’t be easy. I’ll want to carry a bit more photography gear than I carried on this trip, and I’ll want to stay a day or two longer. And the location is two to three days from the nearest trailheads, all of which take you over some very high passes.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
