Tag Archives: highway

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

Eastern Sierra Nevada Near June Lake

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Eastern Sierra Nevada Near June Lake
Eastern Sierra Nevada Near June Lake

Eastern Sierra Nevada Near June Lake. Mono County, California. August 10, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Trees ascend sage-covered hills toward the Sierra Nevada crest near June Lake, California.

Near highway 395 in Mono County, the main north-south route east of the Sierra crest, these open stands of large conifers ascend from the high desert sagebrush country towards the peaks of the Sierra crest, which rise much more abruptly on this side of the range than on the gentle west side. The tall ridge is above the June Lakes resort area between Mammoth Lakes and Lee Vining.

While my primary goal on this trip was to photograph in the Yosemite high country along Tioga Pass Road, smoke from a wildfire near Glacier Point in the park was drifting over the Tuolumne area and creating a lot of very non-photogenic haze. I had a hunch that by dropped over to the east side of the range I might be able to get away from the smoke or at least find areas where it wasn’t so thick. The smoke was still affecting the light near Lee Vining, but I didn’t have to drive too far south to get out of its path, though even here there is a bit of haze increasing the effect of atmospheric recession.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Commentary, Locations

The Impossible Trip: Yosemite in Seven Hours?

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That was the question that someone posed today in a photography forum I read:

We will be visiting Yosemite for approximately 7-8 hours one day the 2nd week of October as part of a weeklong trip to Tahoe (we live on the East Coast). I have been to Yosemite before (many years ago), she has not. Although we know it would take much more time to truly experience Yosemite this is the maximum time we can spend so we are looking for the top spots so we can make the most of the short time we have there.

(There was a bit more that I haven’t included here – the poster also would be staying in Mariposa the night before, and needed to drive across Tioga Pass and be in Tahoe that evening… and wanted to do photography along the way!)

Having visited the park for decades, and for an amount of time perhaps totaling well over a year altogether, and still getting to know the place, my first reaction was to ignore the question or respond with a wise-crack one-liner. Frankly, I don’t think it is really possible to do real photography of “the park” during a seven-hour visit. (With careful planning it would be possible to photograph a subject or two perhaps, but that is a different issue.) In any case, I suppressed my instinct to respond along the lines of “are you kidding!?” and instead tried to provide a realistic outline of what this experience might entail. While I’m spoiled, living only hours from the park, I do understand that others may find themselves in the area and not want to miss at least having a brief experience with such a place. And perhaps the way-too-brief visit might be enough to encourage such visitors to find a way to return for a longer visit.

So, with all of that in mind, here is what I wrote, slightly modified for this post:

You are asking quite a lot here… for a seven hour visit that will include at least 3-4 hours of driving… from Mariposa, into and around the Valley, and then up and over Tioga Pass… plus leaving enough time for the remaining hours-long drive to Tahoe.

Too bad, I’m afraid.

To be honest, the odds that you’ll be able to do much beyond “record-my-quick-visit” photography in the park are slender given the amount of time you’ll be there, your tight schedule, and the fact that you’ll be there mostly during the “blah light” time of day. To some extent, I’m inclined to recommend that you not make photography your primary goal – one reason being that trying to “get those photographs” will distract you even more from you brief opportunity to actually see and experience the place a bit. I photograph in the park frequently, so I know where and how to shoot, and I would not try to do real photography under the conditions you describe.

Having said all of that, the broad outlines of your visit must be: Continue reading The Impossible Trip: Yosemite in Seven Hours? →

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Burned Forest, Evening

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Burned Forest, Evening
Burned Forest, Evening

Burned Forest, Evening. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. August 20, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light on an eastern Sierra Nevada forest recovering from a recent wildfire.

This spot is in Mono County along highway 395 not far from June Lake, and it is a spot that I’ve had my eyes on for some time. As a person who was brought up in the “Smokey the Bear” era, when wildfires were thought to be entirely a bad thing, it took me a while to come to terms with the knowledge that such fires are a natural and necessary element. I understood this logically before I understood it aesthetically, and I struggled for some time with the idea that places where fires have occurred can be seen as sites of rebirth rather than as destruction and desolation.

I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity and the right light to photograph this burn area for a couple of years now. I pass by fairly often, but it has always been at the wrong time of day or at a time when I could not afford to stop. However, as is often the, unexpected coincidences caused me to be here just before sunset as the light turned golden in mid-August. Ironically, part of the cause was… a forest fire in Yosemite! Up in the Tuolumne area, the afternoon air had turned smokey and the light had taken on the sort of brownish color that forest fire smoke can create. This light was not inspiring me, so I thought that I’d drive over the pass and head south a short distance on highway 395 to see if I could find more interesting lighting. As I traveled south from Lee Vining I happened to notice the turn-off for West Portal Road, which heads out in the general direction of Mono Craters. I took this road and spent some time poking around, eventually making a few exposures in the area called Aeolian Buttes, and then returned to the main highway a bit south of where I had originally left the road.

As it happened, this choice dropped me onto 395 at a place where I could see this burned area just a bit further down the road. The sun was not far from dropping behind the Sierra crest, so I figured this could be my chance to give it a try. I found a spot where the late afternoon light was warming the color of the summer-dried grasses and some white flowers grew among the burned trees, and I had perhaps 15 minutes to work before the sun dropped behind the peaks.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Juniper Tree Trunk, Detail

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Juniper Tree Trunk, Detail
Juniper Tree Trunk, Detail

Juniper Tree Trunk, Detail. Yosemite National Park, California.August 12, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The heavily weathered and contorted trunk of juniper trees near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park.

These Sierra juniper trees grow in the most improbable places – on top of granite domes and slabs, with roots somehow finding sustenance in cracks and bits of gravel, and no doubt exposed to the full force of mountain storms. This is actually a group of trees that take advantage of the same crack in the otherwise solid granite, and which have grown together into what almost appears to be one very wide tree at first.

Because of their toughness, the way they grow almost into the rock, and the fact that the trees continue to live even when portions have died, it sometimes seems to me that these trees can have a character that is closer to that of the rock itself than just about any other living thing in the Sierra. The oldest branches and roots grow into the rock and have been shaped so much by their relationship to it that they can almost take on a rock-like character themselves.

These particular specimens happen to be growing part way up a dome-like granite slab above Tioga Pass Road as it passes through Yosemite’s high country. It appears that part of the treed may have been affected by fire, and dead sections have been worn and eroded by the tough sub-alpine environment. The only obvious signs of life in this close up image are the bits of moss or lichen growing in a few cracks in the wood.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.

(Basic EXIF data may be available by “mousing over” large images in posts. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)