Tag Archives: geogology

Basalt Columns

Basalt Columns
Basalt columns at Devil’s Postpile National Monument.

Basalt Columns. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Basalt columns at Devil’s Postpile National Monument.

The existence of this photograph can be credited to two women. The first is my wife Patricia Mitchell. We were in the Eastern Sierra in a the autumn a few years ago to photograph fall colors. On this morning we were supposed to get up early and go photograph aspens, but we were lazy — we slept in and enjoyed breakfast, which is not the typical photographer’s ritual. Devil’s Postpile seemed like a potential option for photography a bit later in the morning, so that’s where we went. Arriving, I wasn’t so sure — there were crowds and the early light was gone — and initially I was going to leave my camera behind and just walk over and take a look… but “someone” urged me to bring the camera gear along just in case.

The second woman who played an (unknown to her) role in the appearance of this photograph is friend and photographer Franka Mlikota Gabler. She recently shared a set of lovely photographs of this location, and these photographs got me thinking about my one visit to the place… and inspired me to back into the raw file archive, where I found this photograph from that lazy morning when I almost left my camera behind.


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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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