Tag Archives: Mountain

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Late Season Aspen Groves

February 25, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late season aspens with sparse leaves on Boulder Mountain

This wasn’t my first visit to Utah, but it was my first visit during fall. We started in the west, where we knew we might find aspens, and we managed to catch the tail end of the aspen color in the high country around Cedar Breaks National Monument. From there we bypassed the obvious visit to Zion Canyon (that came later, on our homebound trip) and headed east, past Bryce and then Escalante and the small town of Boulder. Past Boulder, in terrain I had not visited before, the road began to climb as we drove on into the approaching sunset.

The first time I had driven past this place it was very early in the spring, and I was stunned by the number of aspen trees gathered in huge groves extending far up the slopes of these mountains. I remember making a mental note to visit them some fall, and this was that return visit. Being accustomed to the schedule of eastern Sierra aspen color, however, we arrived after the prime color — it comes earlier here in Utah. But in some ways, the few scattered trees with their wild late-season colors turned out to be more dramatic. What we thought might be a quick drive over Boulder Mountain to Torrey turned out to take a long time as we kept stopping and photographing these trees until there was no light left.

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

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

Aspens and Sage Brush, Evening

October 25, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

High desert aspen groves on sage-covered eastern Sierra hills

I’m continuing with one more characteristic eastern Sierra autumn photograph, though perhaps not the most common sort of view of the subject. The photograph does include some small groves of aspen trees in fall colors, but they are dwarfed by the immense scale of the rolling eastern Sierra foothills, covered by high desert sage brush, and cut with valleys containing creeks draining the eastern slopes of the range. I made this photograph in the early evening, just before sunset, as the low angle sun was sweeping across the crest and casting light and shadow almost parallel to the slope of the hills.

We usually look for fall aspen color in country that is higher and/or wetter — often somewhere up one of the great eastern Sierra canyons or perhaps along a ridge near the crest. But aspens grow in many places, some of which are unexpected or even surprising. They grow a good distance from the Sierra itself, sometimes far out in the high desert, and in areas that hardly seem alpine at all. Sometimes these are smaller trees, seeming to get by on less water and perhaps in a harsher climate, but occasionally they manage to form decent sized groves.

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

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Desert Mountains, Last Light

August 8, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light passes across the rugged face of desert mountains, Death Valley National Park

At the risk of repeating something I have already written several times, scenes like this one have a particular way of deceiving us. This is, in the strict sense of the work, a desert scene, photographed in a place that seems very little perception and where it can be oppressively hot and dry and where sandstorms often blow. From this distance there is little obvious evidence that anything living is within the scene.

However, it is also completely obvious that the scene is full of the evidence of the power of water. While the mountains themselves were not created by water — though if you look back far enough to their sedimentary roots perhaps they were! — they were most certainly shaped by water. The rugged ridges and gullies are clear evidence of the power of water, and even that gradual slope at the bottom of the mountains is an alluvial fan, created over long periods of time as water washed down material eroded from those mountains.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Alpine Tarns

August 5, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Alpine tarns at the base of talus slopes, Kings Canyon National Park

The meaning of the term “tarn” is somewhat varied. Two technical definitions I’ve heard include (rather precisely) a small lake in a depression scooped out by glacial action, or (more informally perhaps) simply any very small body of mountain water too small to qualify as a real lake. Yes, that’s pretty subjective! Aside from their tendency to produce mosquitos, I love tarns, and I especially love areas where they are embedded in a rocky landscape broken by small meadows and occasionally trees.

I photographed this spot with its tarns (or small lakes, if you prefer) in shaded, soft light. There was sun, but it was low enough in the sky that its direct light was blocked by a tremendous rocky ridge to our west. Down here at the base of the small valley where we camped, everything was quiet and soft, including the light.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: Mountain

Late Season Aspen Groves

Aspens and Sage Brush, Evening

Desert Mountains, Last Light

Alpine Tarns

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