Tag Archives: grove

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

Autumn Aspens, Great Basin

October 1, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

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.

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

Photographs: Cascades, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Trees, Alpine Terrain

September 21, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A group of small trees stands on the edge of a deep valley, Cascade Mountains, Washington

This is another photograph from my brief visit to Washington’s North Cascades at Artist Point, high in the mountains at the end of the road between Mount Shuksan and Mount Baker. I had a free day, a rental car, and a forecast to relatively clear weather, so I went. The location is both popular and spectacular. The road ends at a very high point where snow still lay on the ground, and nearby are many trails, including the popular Artist Point trail that ascends a small rise nearby and offers excellent views in all directions.

There is a lot of intriguing stuff in this spot. Obviously the nearby alpine peaks with their extensive glaciers are impressive. Below there are two deep valleys leading away in opposite directions — one to the south towards a very large lake and the other to the north and leading to peaks on the Canadian border. The immediate terrain is alpine, with rocky areas (though less so that in the Sierra Nevada), small tarns, many plants, and small stands of beautiful trees that I believe are mountain hemlock. In this photograph one of those stands is positioned above the upper reaches of the valley that eventually leads south, and across this valley there are a few more trees, deeply eroded terrain, and some meadowy areas.

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

Photographs: Cascades, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Trees, Volcanic Terrain

September 14, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tree line groves in the volcanic alpine landscape of the North Cascades

I’ll continue to alternate between photographs from several recent photographic projects — the late-August Sierra backcountry photography, a recent trip to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, and perhaps a few other things. Today’s photograph comes from the Seattle visit, from which I returned just a few days ago. I spent most of the visit in the Seattle, specifically Ballard, where I did some street photography. However, I did get one day to drive out a bit and do some landscape photography. After considering the “big three” options (Rainier, Olympics, and Cascades) I decided to head north, almost to the Canadian border, and the Mount Baker area.

I went to the understandably popular Artist Point area, just beyond the Mount Baker ski area, where there are a number of trails heading out in various directions to visit this spectacular country sitting between the summits of Mount Shuksan and Mount Baker. While my experience with this county is limited — it is a long ways from home! — I love the character of these mountains. They feature dark and rugged volcanic peaks, large glaciers, forests fed by the significant precipitation in this part of the world, and a rather abrupt transition between the world of the forests and that of the glaciers. Artist Point sits very close to this boundary — there are beautiful trees, but much of the country is open and rocky, and not far above are those glaciers.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New York City

Sunday In The Park

August 4, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Visitors to Manhattan’s Central Park on a sunny summer afternoon

I love the natural landscape, especially my familiar “friends” of the Sierra Nevada, the California coast, the redwoods, the western deserts, and others that are close enough to me that I regard them as part of my greater neighborhood. But I also love cities. The differences between the two worlds are obvious — loud and fast versus quiet and still, lots of crowds versus solitude, a constructed world versus a natural one. But they are not, perhaps, as entirely separate as we might think. When we visit either of these worlds we invariably bring at least some of the world we left behind. (Sometime when I feel like writing a lot more about the topic, I may share some ideas I have about the dangers of regarding the natural and human worlds as being altogether separate and distinct.)

In any case, we were again in New York earlier this summer, partly for the city itself and partly (mostly?) to visit family. We ended up in Central Park more than once, and on the last visit I think we sort of got to experience the park a bit as the “locals” do, when we put together a picnic with our “kids” and staked out a spot in Sheep Meadow to join the New Yorkers on the Fourth of July. Perhaps because that which seems natural is here so overwhelmed by that which seems constructed, it seems like at least some New Yorkers may almost feel more strongly about their local “natural spaces” than folks do in less urbanized environments. This photograph was made on an earlier walk through the park, when we traveled along paths that took us past this small but very popular lake.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: grove

Autumn Aspens, Great Basin

Trees, Volcanic Terrain

Sunday In The Park

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