Tag Archives: park

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

Lee Vining Canyon and Mono Craters, Morning

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Lee Vining Canyon and Mono Craters, Morning
“Lee Vining Canyon and Mono Craters, Morning” — Morning clouds and haze over Mono Craters, from Upper Lee Vining Canyon.

East of Tioga Pass, highway 120 (“Tioga Pass Road”) descends relatively gently past Tioga Lake and then Ellery Lake before it drops precipitously down the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada through Lee Vining Canyon on its way to the junction with highway 395 just south of the town of Lee Vining. I’ve driven over it for years, going back and forth between my home in the San Francisco Bay Area and the east side of the Sierra, so I should be fairly nonchalant about it by now – but every so often as I pass over the route (most often going east and looking into the canyon from above) I wonder whatever possessed people to think that it would be a good idea to route a road across the talus fields and across the steep headway of this canyon.

During last week’s photographic trip to the Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite National Park I crossed the pass several times. The first time was to scout some locations around Mono Lake – OK, and to get an espresso at Latte Da in Lee Vining. the second was the following morning when I returned to photograph those locations. The night before I had moved my camp to Ellery Lake (it is a long story), which put me a bit closer to Mono Lake, so I was up well before dawn and at Mono Lake before sunrise. After photographing my primary subject there at dawn, I stuck around long enough to photograph the early morning light and haze above the lake, then headed back to break camp before heading home. As I crossed that headwall high up above Lee Vining Canyon, I looked east toward the Mono Craters. Looking that way is pretty much a habit, but I rarely find it to present anything that I want to photograph. This morning was different. I quickly found a turn-out and drove back to this spot. A luminous haze filled the air (I like atmospheric haze for photography!), a few clouds clustered around ridges just beyond the volcanic Mono Craters, and a high line of clouds from monsoonal flow was visible in the distance, with the steep walls of Lee Vining Canyon backlit and almost seen entirely in silhouette.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.
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Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Yosemite

Reflected Evening Sky, Tuolumne River

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Reflected Evening Sky, Tuolumne River - A solitary boulder interrupts the flow of the Tuolumne River as it reflects the colors of sunset sky, Yosemite National Park.
A solitary boulder interrupts the flow of the Tuolumne River as it reflects the colors of sunset sky, Yosemite National Park.

Reflected Evening Sky, Tuolumne River. Yosemite National Park, California. July 12, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A solitary boulder interrupts the flow of the Tuolumne River as it reflects the colors of sunset sky, Yosemite National Park.

I’m just back from a few days photographing in the greater Tuolumne Meadows area of the Yosemite and the Sierra. I stayed in Tuolumne for a couple of nights and then one additional night at a forest service campground just east of the pass, allowing me the better part of four days of photography in the area between about Tenaya Lake and the pass, plus some areas east of the pass. I even managed to get down to Mono Lake for one very early morning shoot. For those who haven’t been up there yet this season, this is a very different year in many ways related to climate. It is dry! There is virtually no snow left except in the usual “permanent” areas on the highest peaks, water levels are very low, and overall it looks a lot more like late August or even September. (But look around and you’ll still find wildflowers.) Areas of the forest, especially higher up and near passes, seem to have suffered a lot of damage in a late-2011 wind storm. I’ve never seen so many trees downed by wind as I saw near Tioga Pass on this visit.

Since I was camping in Tuolumne Meadows, one day I used the midday hours that are less conducive to photography to scout a few locations along the Tuolumne River. I wandered down from camp, across the meadows, and over towards Soda Springs. From here I picked out a few likely prospects for evening photography – a bend in the river with some interesting trees, a large boulder that might front a photograph of the Cockscomb, and a few others. That evening I returned, hoping for interesting lighting. It was one of those evenings that held the possibility of very interesting sunset and post-sunset light. There were dissipating clouds above the Sierra crest, some clouds directly overhead, and clearing to the west. These conditions can allow light to shine up under the clouds from the west at sunset, and can produce intensely colorful displays. I never know for sure that this will happen, but I know that the conditions increase the chances a great deal… so I’m willing to be there and ready to photograph if it does happen. On this evening it didn’t quite happen. It was a lovely evening and there were colors, but nothing tremendously out of the (relatively nice) ordinary. During the last few minutes of color I was thinking about how there was nothing to the west that could make a photograph that included the light appearing that direction, when I happened to look down on the surface of the river to see this rock and these patterns on the surface of the water.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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.

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

Forest, Meadow, and Stream

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Forest, Meadow, and Stream - A mountain stream winds through a sub-alpine meadow and past lodgepole forest beneath a snow-covered peak in evening light, Yosemite National Park.
A mountain stream winds through a sub-alpine meadow and past lodgepole forest beneath a snow-covered peak in evening light, Yosemite National Park.

Forest, Meadow, and Stream. Yosemite National Park, California. July 28, 2011. © Copyright 201 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A mountain stream winds through a sub-alpine meadow and past lodgepole forest beneath a snow covered peak in evening light, Yosemite National Park.

I know this scene is in Yosemite National Park. I know that it is in the high country along Tioga Pass Road, most likely not too far from Tuolumne Meadows. I know that I made the photograph in the evening after photographing certain other specific subjects in this area. But, for the life of me, I cannot identify the exact location. The peak looks very familiar and I can’t imagine that I had not earlier seen this little bend in the river, but one year after I made the photograph… I’m coming up empty! :-)

Still, there are plenty of things that I do know about this scene. It was late July of the second of two very wet seasons in the Sierra, and the results are plainly visible here in several ways. Even though it was almost August, there is still plenty of snow on the ridge and peak, which must be in the 11,000+’ elevation range, given the alpine appearance of the talus fields. That is a lot of snow for late July! (This year it looked about like that six or eight weeks earlier.) And, not surprisingly given the amount of yet-to-melt snow, the little meadow is still lush and green with early summer growth. And, of course, the stream itself is flowing strongly. I suppose that the main subject of this photograph was and is the beautiful fringe of late-day light on the little grove of trees on the bank of the creek as it meanders through the meadow.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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.

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

Forest, Tarn, and Granite

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Forest, Tarn, and Granite - Sierra forest and granite reflected in the surface of a small tarn, Yosemite National Park.
Sierra forest and granite reflected in the surface of a small tarn, Yosemite National Park.

Forest, Tarn, and Granite. Yosemite National Park, California. July 28, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sierra forest and granite reflected in the surface of a small tarn, Yosemite National Park.

Having visited the Sierra and the Yosemite high country for more than a few decades, I have become attached to a number of small and unlikely little places that have personal meaning to me. This is one of those odd little spots. At a point along Tioga Pass Road there is a small unmarked turnout like many other such turnouts along this route. One time a few years ago I stopped here for reasons that I can no longer recall. I got out of the car and noticed a very faint path leading away from the road – so, of course, I took it! It led though tightly spaced trees and towards a small canyon, passing several small ponds along the way. I also recall mosquitos. Lots of mosquitos.

Since that time I have returned to this spot quite a few times – in snow on the day that the road first opens, on sunny summer days like this one, and on damp and foggy evenings in late fall not long before the highway closes for the season. Where is the spot, exactly? All I’ll say is that it is in Yosemite and that you can get to it by walking away from Tioga Pass Road. Frankly, I don’t think the specific location really matters to anyone but me and perhaps a few others who might stop here, too. There are thousands of such little spots throughout the Sierra, and it is your discovery of your own personal places among them that can make them special.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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.