Tag Archives: gold

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Cottonwood Trees, Gulch

November 28, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cottonwood trees in full autumn color line a gulch as it passes between sandstone hills

I came upon this beautiful cottonwood-filled valley on a short drive I took out of Boulder, Utah while waiting for my late-afternoon check-in on my first day in a motel after a week of camping. As you can imagine, I was looking forward to this change in accommodations and the chance to get a shower and sleep in a real bed!

My drive took me a short distance out on the Burr Trail, which ends in Boulder. I’ve been over a good portion of this route (which is a road, despite the “trail” in its name) a few times in the past, using it to get to Boulder from a somewhat isolated area of Capitol Reef National Park. My goal on this little drive was a long, narrow sandstone canyon that is just a few miles out of town, but it turned out that the canyon was less interesting in the light I had to work with than this stretch of cottonwoods was. I came upon this site in a spot where the road descends through a sharp set of hairpin turns as it drops toward the valley. Along this section there are turnouts that provide open views into the valley and along its course as it winds into the distance. From this spot the valley was filled with more cottonwoods than I usually see around such a creek — typically they line up along its banks, but here the filled the valley between the red rocks from side to side.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Canyon Cottonwood Trees, Autumn

November 20, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cottonwood trees with autumn foliage fill the bottom of a red rock canyon near Boulder, Utah

After a week or so of camping out in a range of Utah locations, one of which was rather remote, I emerged from this backcountry of gravel roads and red rock and canyons and came back to the (relative) civilization of Escalante, Utah. Gas stations! Espresso! Restaurants! Even better, I had an appointment to meet my cousin and her husband over in Boulder, Utah… and dinner was on the calendar!

I arrived in Boulder a bit early, and having a bit of extra time I decided to use it by traveling out on the Burr Trail. I’ve been on that road a few times in the past, so I figured that it would be fairly easy to find red rock canyon walls and perhaps more cottonwood color. As I arrived at the first narrow section of canyon the road traversed the side of a ridge and offered overhead views looking down into the canyon and up a larger nearby wash. While elsewhere in the state I had seen a combination of green cottonwoods and other trees that were just about at peak color, here is seemed that the cottonwood color had already peaked, and instead of a wall of gold I saw a mixture of a few intense golden trees and many others that had lost leaves and exposed their trunks and branches. In this spot the trees lined up against canyon walls, and a nearby they marched off down the canyon.

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

East Carson River, Autumn

October 23, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fall colors along the canyon of the East Carson River, California

Aspens are most certainly not the only sources of autumn color in the Sierra Nevada. There are many bush-like plants that can be quite colorful, such as the willows that may line high elevation creeks, and in the lower places along rivers cottonwood trees produce beautiful color just a bit later than the aspens.

This photograph was made along a section of the East Carson River not far from the tiny town of Markleeville in Alpine County, one of the least populated areas in the state. In this general area there is a transition from the higher country around the Sierra crest toward the high desert east of the range where rivers like this one end up. As I drove up the highway alongside the East Carson it was still early morning and shadows filled the bottom of the river canyon, where colors came from brush, cottonwoods, reflected blue sky and warmer colors reflected from higher canyon walls.

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

Fall Aspen Trees, Country Road

October 22, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A narrow gravel road approaches groves of brilliantly colored autumn aspen trees, Sierra Nevada

The eastern Sierra is full of fall color during the month of October, especially in areas where aspen trees grow. (The peak color is typically found sometime during the first two to three weeks of the month, though it varies depending upon a range of climate and local conditions.) Sierra aspens often have a different appearance from that which many expect if they have seen the big, tall, straight aspen groves in places like Colorado and Utah and similar. There are some groves like that in the Sierra, but they are unusual. Here the trees seem to have more varied form depending upon where they end up growing. In some places the trees are stout and thick but also quite twisted and gnarled. In others the trees are straight but very short. Along some creeks they grow so think that it is almost impossible to make your way inside the groves.

The trees in this photograph are perhaps typical, to the extent that it makes sense to speak of “typical” Sierra aspens. They grow at a relatively high elevation, on a ridge that is actually east of the true Sierra crest, and thus in a drier location. The trees are straight, but they are also not all that big. They are not part of a huge grove stretching across vast distances, but instead form a somewhat isolate grove — there are others nearby, but they are not connected.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: gold

Cottonwood Trees, Gulch

Canyon Cottonwood Trees, Autumn

East Carson River, Autumn

Fall Aspen Trees, Country Road

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.