Lake and Pinnacles, Evening. Kings Canyon National Park. July 30, 2010. © Copyright 2010 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Evening light reflects surrounding pinnacles in the surface of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake
This photograph takes me back to a long southern Sierra backpacking trip I took with friends back in 2010 — a trip from which I have recently shared a few other photographs. We entered the backcountry of Kings Canyon National Park from the east over one of the high Sierra crest passes, a few days later crossed another even higher pass to enter the upper Kern River drainage, spent a few days in a very remote portion of this area, and then exited back to the east over the crest by way of one of the more notorious east side passes — not the most notorious one, but definitely on the short list of awful passes… in a wonderful way. ;-)
The lake in this photograph was the site of our first night camp, after we came over that first pass and dropped to this beautiful sub-alpine valley with its lakes, meadows, rocks, and small trees. We settled in to this first camp… and into the familiar and welcome patterns of a long trip into the backcountry. These include camaraderie among friends who have shared many backpacking experiences, purposefully purposeless wandering around the wilderness neighborhood, sitting on rocks and staring, and watching the day transition to evening and then night.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
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.