Tag Archives: great basin

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Nevada

Autumn Aspens, Great Basin

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Autumn Aspens, Great Basin
Autumn aspen trees drop their leaves, Great Basin National Park

Autumn Aspens, Great Basin. Great Basin National Park, Nevada. September 27, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen trees drop their leaves, Great Basin National Park

I began this year’s Great Fall Color Chase in a different location — not the Eastern Sierra Nevada, but instead about as far east as one can go in Nevada, at the Great Basin National Park. Several factors led me to make this trip — some specifically fall color related, and others that don’t connect to that activity. Over the past few years I have noticed a few things about Sierra Nevada fall color season. The crowds have been increasing, to the point that they can sometimes be a bit too much. But quieter and less crowded places are still available if you look around a bit. And sometimes looking a bit beyond the confines of the Sierra turns up some interesting color, perhaps in places you might not expect. The latter realization has pushed me gradually further east of the Sierra itself… and what could be a more natural extension of that process than going to the eastern boundary of Nevada?

But fall color was only part of my reason for making the long trip to Great Basin National Park. I know a bit about the basin and range country, but my direct experience with it is limited — and this park (and the long drive across many basins and ranges to get there!) offered the chance to confront this new, to me, landscape. I arrived a few days before the end of September, thinking that the somewhat earlier color change that I’ve seen in next-door Utah might be mirrored in Nevada. This turned out to be partially true — there was already aspen and cottonwood and other types of color, but it wasn’t quite at peak just yet. But I learned a lot on this trip, about where to look for the color (including one canyon I discovered just a bit too late) and when to find it. I made this photograph of trees growing in a large valley below the summit ridge that holds Wheeler Peak, the 13,000+ footer that is the second-tallest peak in Nevada.

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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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Nevada

Wheeler Cirque, Autumn Snow

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Wheeler Cirque, Autumn Snow
Evening light and autumn snow on the walls and towers above Wheeler Cirque, Great Basin National Park

Wheeler Cirque, Autumn Snow. Great Basin National Park, Nevada. September 28, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light and autumn snow on the walls and towers above Wheeler Cirque, Great Basin National Park

I often return to national parks and other places with which I have developed a personal relationship over a long period of time. But sometimes I do get to visit a brand new place, and I did just that during the last week or so of this year, when I spent five days making the long trip out to Great Basin National Park and back. When I go to a new area like this I intentionally avoid trying to find out too much about it ahead of time, preferring to begin a process of learning the place on my own terms. I already knew a bit about the Great Basin and the basin and range country, and I did look up the location on maps, though I did not take a detailed look at the maps of the park itself. I knew that the park is near the Nevada-Utah border, with Baker, NV being the closest “town,” that Wheeler peak is the second tallest point in Nevada, that there is a glacier nearby, that there are famous caves, and that I could camp along the main road into the park. I left the rest for discovery.

As I drove across highway 50 from California I was surprised to find recent snow on all of the major mountain ranges in Nevada, and by the time I got to Great Basin NP I knew that I would see it there, too. I made this photograph on my final day in the park. I spent the morning exploring a less-visited area accessible via a long gravel road. (Where I discovered, at the wrong time of day, where to find a lot of fall color!) After lunch I went up to the summit of the park road at 10,000’+ and hiked out to the bristlecone pine grove, traveling a good portion of the distance on snow. It was cold — up here in the upper 30s at times during the day — and the sun goes down earlier this time of year, so I set a turn-around time that would get me back to my car before nightfall. I made this photograph within five minutes of the end of my hike, as the late light was slanting across the peaks and cirque walls from low in the west, and as clouds were forming above the summit ridges.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.