Tag Archives: peak

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Spring Ice, Snowy Mountains

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Spring Ice, Snowy Mountains
A partially melted lake and snow-covered mountains near the Sierra Nevada crest.

Spring Ice, Snowy Mountains. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A partially melted lake and snow-covered mountains near the Sierra Nevada crest.

For many of us the annual re-opening of Tioga Pass Road through the Yosemite high country marks the beginning of the “summer” season, even though it often takes place in late spring. (And, “the season” typically extends into autumn, too.) Whenever I can, I try to be there on the day the road opens. For those familiar with the route from more typical summer visits, the conditions can be a real surprise, especially in years of heavy snowfall and late melts. In the big years there is water everywhere — waterfalls flowing, creeks and rivers are filled to (and beyond) their banks, meadows are flooded, and sometimes the creeks flow right across the roadway. Conditions beyond the road can be quite difficult, approaching impossible at times. (I recall one very early season hike to Parker Pass, when creek crossings were surprisingly challenging and some high elevation areas that are dry in summer were too wet to walk through.)

I decided not to go on the first open day this year, mostly due to weather issues, instead postponing my visit for a couple of days. I did go, and it turned into one of my epic one-day-up-and-back trips. I was on the road shortly after 4:00 AM, went as far as Panum Crater (which I climbed) near Mono Lake, and didn’t get back home until well after midnight. In some ways, this isn’t the ideal time for photography — that can be more interesting later on when the meadows have turned green. Honestly, it is more about kicking off the new season. Late in the day, I headed back up from Lee Vining to cross Tioga Pass and stopped briefly to photograph this familiar lake just the pass, with its remarkable pattern of melting ice and the distance peaks of Kuna Crest still fully covered in snow.

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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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Peak Aspen Color

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Peak Aspen Color
An eastern Sierra Nevada aspen grove at the peak of fall color

Peak Aspen Color. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 9, 2017© Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An eastern Sierra Nevada aspen grove at the peak of fall color

I regard fall aspen photography as, to a great extent, an exercise in timing. One element of this is, of course, to simply be in the right place at times of peak color. Aspen color is rarely static, and from day to day it changes. Just a few days earlier I had been in this same spot and most of the trees were still green. (I made a mental note on that earlier visit to come back in a few days when I suspected that the colors might be more developed.) The time of day is also critical since light variations play a huge role in the ways the colors appear. Early and late in the day, when the trees are still in shadow but perhaps lit by open sky and reflections from surrounding mountains, the soft light can produce rather saturated colors and fill the shadows with light. When backlit, the same groves might be so bright that it is sometimes difficult to figure out the idea exposure. And when the groves are front lit the colors can be greatly diminished.

Before we came to this spot we had started our day by photographing in a rather different area a few miles away. We worked those subjects for perhaps an hour and a half, and at that point I remembered my idea of visiting this other location, the one where I made this photograph, before the direct sunlight arrived. So off we went, down one canyon and then up another, to arrive at this spot where I knew colorful aspen trees would spread up the hillside in the shade. The colors were quite incredible. Most of the hillside was in full color — a lot of golden/yellow, but also shades of orange and red. Here and there a few trees where still green, and for this composition I decided to place one of those clusters of green trees in almost the center of a frame otherwise filled with wild colors.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Nevada

Wheeler Glacier and Cirque Headwall

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Wheeler Glacier and Cirque Headwall
Wheeler glacier and the cirque headwall below Wheeler Peak, Great Basin National Park

Wheeler Glacier and Cirque Headwall. Great Basin National Park, Nevada. September 26, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Wheeler Glacier and the cirque headwall below Wheeler Peak, Great Basin National Park

On my recent first-time visit to Nevada’s Great Basin National Park I experienced the challenges and rewards of photographing a brand new (to me!) location. As I have previously noted, I usually avoid doing too much research about a new destination ahead of time, at least beyond what is necessary to successfully get there and back and locate places to stay and eat, along with the most basic known features of the place. (For anyone who hasn’t heard the message already, I’m trying to retain the potential for discovery in new places and to make it more likely that I will form my own orientation to them.) So, what I actually knew about this park in advance of my visit was somewhat limited: it is formed around the Snake Mountains, it is famous for its caves, Wheeler Peak is the second highest point in Nevada, there might be fall color at this time of year, that much of the park is not easily accessible… and there is a glacier!

From this and a few of my other photographs of the high areas of the park you might get the impression that it is largely and alpine place. It isn’t. In fact, the spots that do have that feeling are a small portion of the park and at least partially notable for being exceptions. Yet, once you arrive at such places they become your entire world. (Well, almost your entire world, since views of the surrounding “basin” terrain are rarely far away.) This glacial cirque cuts into the highest ridge, separating the two tallest summits in the park. The view straight into this glacial valley is, indeed, impressively alpine. (As I write this I have a photograph of a Pacific Northwest glacier scene from Mount Shuksan open on my computer, and it shares remarkable parallels with this photograph.) On this visit the effect was enhances by a recent dusting of early autumn snowfall that coats the mountains and the top of the huge rock glacier at the lower edge of the much smaller ice glacier.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Nevada

Wheeler Cirque, Autumn Snow

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Wheeler Cirque, Autumn Snow
Evening light and autumn snow on the walls and towers above Wheeler Cirque, Great Basin National Park

Wheeler Cirque, Autumn Snow. Great Basin National Park, Nevada. September 28, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light and autumn snow on the walls and towers above Wheeler Cirque, Great Basin National Park

I often return to national parks and other places with which I have developed a personal relationship over a long period of time. But sometimes I do get to visit a brand new place, and I did just that during the last week or so of this year, when I spent five days making the long trip out to Great Basin National Park and back. When I go to a new area like this I intentionally avoid trying to find out too much about it ahead of time, preferring to begin a process of learning the place on my own terms. I already knew a bit about the Great Basin and the basin and range country, and I did look up the location on maps, though I did not take a detailed look at the maps of the park itself. I knew that the park is near the Nevada-Utah border, with Baker, NV being the closest “town,” that Wheeler peak is the second tallest point in Nevada, that there is a glacier nearby, that there are famous caves, and that I could camp along the main road into the park. I left the rest for discovery.

As I drove across highway 50 from California I was surprised to find recent snow on all of the major mountain ranges in Nevada, and by the time I got to Great Basin NP I knew that I would see it there, too. I made this photograph on my final day in the park. I spent the morning exploring a less-visited area accessible via a long gravel road. (Where I discovered, at the wrong time of day, where to find a lot of fall color!) After lunch I went up to the summit of the park road at 10,000’+ and hiked out to the bristlecone pine grove, traveling a good portion of the distance on snow. It was cold — up here in the upper 30s at times during the day — and the sun goes down earlier this time of year, so I set a turn-around time that would get me back to my car before nightfall. I made this photograph within five minutes of the end of my hike, as the late light was slanting across the peaks and cirque walls from low in the west, and as clouds were forming above the summit ridges.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.