Sierra Crest, Reflections, Morning. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. July 4, 2006. © Copyright 2006 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on peaks reflecting in an eastern Sierra lake.

Almost a decade ago I met my brother Richard and his family for a backpacking trip into the eastern Sierra in the area between about the Minarets and Thousand Island Lake. It is almost hard to recall a time when the Sierra was this wet and this green at this point in the season — let’s hope for a turn-around in the weather and a season or two like this one.

The weather during this trip was in the wet phase of a common Sierra summer pattern, where days of “perfect” (perfectly boring!) blue sky weather eventually lead to a build-up of clouds and a few days of thunderstorms. We had some precipitation on most days, including at least one when we were caught by surprise on a day hike to a nearby lake — we began in sun, we arrived at the lake in sun… and then all of a sudden we could see that rain was about to arrive. We high-tailed it back to camp, but got caught by rain before we arrived. This photograph was made the next morning, as the first light was just touching the peaks of Mounts Ritter and Banner above Ediza Lake, and already to moisture was visible in the clouds that were forming even at dawn.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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