Tag Archives: peak

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Hitchcock Lakes

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High Lakes, Trail Crest
Terrain to the west of Whitney Trail Crest

Hitchcock Lakes from the Mt. Whitney Trail. Sequoia National Park, California. August 11, 2008. © Copyright 2008 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Hitchcock Lakes seen from the Mt. Whitney Trail.

I climbed Mount Whitney – again – on August 11, 2008 after crossing the Sierra Nevada from west to east on Sequoia National Park’s High Sierra Trail. I’ve been to the summit a couple times in the past. Last year I swore I would not climb this peak again, mainly because there are so many other beautiful things to see in the Sierra and I didn’t feel a strong need to do this again. But my friends proposed a trip that concluded with the Whitney ascent, and I couldn’t say no.

A traditional starting point for ascents from the west is Guitar Lake, a small – and often somewhat crowded – little lake in a truly alpine setting just above timberline. From here the trail ascends the valley containing these lakes, leading to the junction with the trail from the east side just before reaching the ridge, and then a lateral trail traverses out to the summit of Whitney.

It won’t surprise anyone if I say that there are some wonderful panoramas to be seen from almost any point on this climb. One of my favorite is this view back across the valley from which the trail ascended and towards high elevation Hitchcock Lakes and the ridge between them and the Crabtree Basin beyond.

(Oddly, I often find the summit view to be photographically uninspiring, and I usually end up just making some “record” photos there and a perfunctory pano or two.)

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.
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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: Sierra Nevada

Evening and Shoreline Trees, Moraine Lake

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Evening and Shoreline Trees, Moraine Lake
Evening and Shoreline Trees, Moraine Lake. Sequoia National Park, California. August 7 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening along the tree-lined shore of Moraine Lake in Sequoia National Park, California.

Moraine Lake is located on the Chagoopa Plateau in the Sierra Nevada backcountry of Sequoia National Park, between Big Arroyo and the deep trench of Kern Canyon. Aside from being a bit windy when I’ve been there, it is a very peaceful spot – and a good warm place (relatively speaking) to swim. No surprise given its name, the opposite shore is formed by a lateral moraine that must have come from a glacier traveling down Big Arroyo, and there are lots of rocks everywhere. In fact, along the near shoreline they form a couple of little peninsulas that enclose shallows cut off from the main lake and which support a few trees like those in this photograph.

Most recently I was here in in early August of 2008, when I and a group of friends camped for a night on our trip from Crescent Meadow to Whitney Portal via the High Sierra Trail. Technically (OK, literally), Moraine Lake is not “on” the High Sierra Trail, being instead on a lateral loop that leaves the HS Trail on the Chagoopa Plateau to drop down to the lake, and which then continues to the loop to rejoin a few miles later. Oddly, it seems to me that most people who hike through here probably do take the alternative route past Moraine, with the exception of some hard-core hikers who walk far enough in a day to not need to camp on the Plateau.

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Photographs: People, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Steve at Upper Hamilton Lake

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Steve at Upper Hamilton Lake

Steve at Upper Hamilton Lake. Sequoia National Park, California. August 5, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserve

Steve wades into Upper Hamilton Lake below Kaweah Gap – High Sierra Trail, Sequoia National Park, California.

Upper Hamilton Lake was our goal on the second night of our August 2008 9-day trans-Sierra backpack trip from Crescent Meadow in Sequoia National Park to Whitney Portal. This beautiful (and popular) lake is set in a deep bowl below Kaweah Gap, the pass across the Great Western Divide that we would cross the next morning.

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Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Evening, Upper Hamilton Lake and Kaweah Gap

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Evening, Upper Hamilton Lake and Kaweah Gap
Evening, Upper Hamilton Lake and Kaweah Gap. Sequoia National Park, California. August 6, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Color photograph of Upper Hamilton Lake and Kaweah Gap as evening sun strikes peaks around the upper basin – Sequoia National Park, California.

Upper Hamilton Lake is located on the High Sierra Trail in Sequoia National Park, and is the traditional camping spot before climbing over Kaweah Gap on the ridge in this photograph. I arrived there on August 6, 2008 on the second day of nine-day trans-Sierra backpacking trip from Crescent Meadow to Whitney portal, and we left the next morning to climb the Gap and head to points east.

This photograph was made in the evening as the sun set, sending its light through the narrow opening of the canyon to the west toward the wall at the upper end of the lake – while the high ridge is still in sunlight the lake and surrounding slopes are already in shadow. The photograph was made from a position not more than ten or twelve feet from my campsite.

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