Tag Archives: ridge

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

Glacial Erratics, Near Olmsted Point

October 11, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Glacial erratic boulders rest on a tree-topped granite slab at sunset near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park

Among the various landscapes of the high Sierra, this sort of scene most clearly says “Yosemite” to me: the glaciated granite slabs, mostly solid but broken but exfoliating and broken by cracks; the scattered glacial erratic boulders left behind by retreating ice; and the sparse trees somehow managing to not only survive but seemingly prosper while growing on almost solid rock. Although you don’t see precisely these things in the better known Valley, once you get up into the high country of the park you’ll see these features almost everywhere, and especially in the zone from, say, 8000′ of elevation or so and on up.

This photograph was made close to Olmsted Point. While Olmsted is probably better known for its “backside” view of Half Dome and its huge views up toward Tenaya Lake and on to the Sierra crest at Mount Conness, the immediate surroundings are full of this typical Sierra terrain that I described above. Most of the terrain above, below, and around the Point shows evidence of this glacial action, and by taking a few steps away from the parking lot in almost any direction (but do avoid cliffs!) you can find enough examples of this landscape to keep yourself occupied for a long time.

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

Steelhead Lake, Shoreline

October 8, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The curving shoreline of Steelhead Lake, photographed in early evening light.

This is a fairly simple shot, and I think it represents a sort of scene that many Sierra Nevada back-country travelers know well. Steelhead Lake sits high on a bench up in the McGee Creek drainage, with a very tall ridge running to the east (and blocking early morning light) and a deep canyon to the west and northwest, with views toward the Sierra crest beyond. Unusual for an east-side location, there is much better light in the evening than in the morning. (More typically, east-side high country areas are open to the east and the morning light, and the evening light is blocked by the Sierra crest.) Most of the shoreline of the lake is forested, with the exception of a section at the upper end that is covered by the base of a talus field spilling down from the higher ridges.

We camped on what almost amounted to a peninsula, at least when viewed from the direction from which the trail arrives at the lake. Our spot on the peninsula was high enough to command a view of most of the moderate sized lake, and especially back across this little cover below our position. Late in the day as the setting sun approached the crest of the Sierra out of the frame to the left, low angle light slanted across the valley below and onto the low ridge along the edge of the lake, illuminating the atmospheric haze and back-lighting the trees along the shoreline.

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

Parker Lake and Parker Canyon, Fall

October 4, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Aspens in fall color in the lower reaches of Parker Canyon above Parker Lake, Sierra Nevada

As the fall aspen color season comes along, I’ll share photographs of this annual phenomenon, both from the current year and from past seasons. This photograph comes from last year, the autumn of 2011. That was a fall color season to remember in the eastern Sierra Nevada range, and for several reasons. First it was unusual in that several strong winter-type storm fronts swept over the Sierra during the first week or so of October. While an occasional front that drops a light coating of high elevation snow is not unusual this time of year, a series of storms that dropped up to a foot of snow in many places was a surprise. (Many of us were perhaps tricked into thinking that this was an indication of a third consecutive heavy precipitation year – but we were certainly wrong about that!) So a scene that might typically hold little or no snow at this mid-October date does have snow, and a fairly low elevations as well. Second, the development of aspen color took a few interesting twists and turns that year. There was some good color early on up high, but then the snow came and both made it less accessible and took down some of the early leaves. So this early color was interrupted, only to return in grand form a week or so later – and there was a lot of wonderful color by the middle of the month when I made this photograph.

Parker Canyon is an area that I identify with a bit. I often hike out to Parker Pass on the Sierra crest from inside Yosemite – it is a nice day hike that gets into some lovely alpine country and even is conducive to one of my favorite pastimes in the high country, cross-country hiking. So I’ve been at the pass a number of times… but have never gone much beyond it. I understand that the trail over Parker Pass heads into some very high country once it leaves the park boundaries. In addition, I’ve often looked to this area for some later color when I head to the eastern Sierra to photograph the aspens, where the area known as “Parker Bench” can have some great aspen stands. On this day I hiked from the end of the road up to Parker Lake, joining lots and lots of other folks out to see the fall color show. I did the hike more or less in the middle of the day, following early morning shooting and passing the time before the later light, and I did not necessarily expect to find a lot of interesting light to photograph. However, there were clouds! And these clouds muted the harsh midday light and added some interesting shadows to the landscape. In addition, the dark rock of Parker Canyon created an appealing contrast with the bright and colorful aspens near the upper shore of Parker Lake.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Dawn Light, Alkali Lake and the Minarets

October 1, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Pink dawn light illuminates the surface of an Alkali Lake and the Minarets, and Mounts Ritter and Banner

Although it has been almost a year since I made this photograph, I recall the morning very well. I had stayed at a cheap motel in Mammoth Lakes the night before, and when I got up well before dawn I had no specific shooting plan other than to head in the general direction of places where I would find aspens, most likely somewhat south of Mammoth. I drove down to highway 395 from Mammoth and spotted the steam from the hot springs along with some fog in Long Valley. Figuring that I wasn’t certain where I would find the aspen color I was looking for but that I was certain that interesting stuff was happening out in the valley, I changed plans and headed there instead.

I drove to small lake where I have photographed a number of times in the past, pulled off the road, grabbed my gear, and headed out to the bank of the lake opposite the still relatively dark Sierra crest. This was an unusual early October, and three relatively large winter-type storms had passed through during the previous week, dropping substantial early season snow all along the upper reaches of the Sierra. As a consequence, at a time of year when it usually looks more like summer, the range had taken on a very wintry appearance. As the first pre-dawn light came to the sky, it turned the slightly hazy atmosphere a beautiful shade of pink and this light was reflected in the surface of the small lake.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: ridge

Glacial Erratics, Near Olmsted Point

Steelhead Lake, Shoreline

Parker Lake and Parker Canyon, Fall

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