Tag Archives: Sierra Nevada

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

Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne

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Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne
Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne

Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. Yosemite National Park, California. September 6, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Haze fills the westward view into the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River

Far below the location of this photograph lies one of the greatest travesties in the national park system — the abomination of the Hetch Hetchy dam and reservoir. I now understand the political pressures that led to the damming of this “second Yosemite” — San Francisco’s obsession with water following the 1906 great earthquake and the subsequent fire — but in retrospect this was a monumental offense to the purpose and goals of our great national parks. The Hetch Hetchy Valley had virtually everything that its more southerly neighbor has and which astound people from all over the world — towering cliffs, beautiful domes, forest and meadow along a great river on the valley floor, tall waterfalls. After years of absence from this prostituted place, I returned a year or two ago on an afternoon when I was heading home from the Sierra… and I felt only anger and disgust at the the damned dam.

But here, miles upstream, the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River is still a wilderness, protected from overcrowding by tall and steep walls and a narrow gorge. In the late afternoon I walked a ridge near the edge of the canyon and looked west into the maze of successive ridges that separate creeks that feed the river and made this photograph.

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.

Commentary

More signs of fall in the High Sierra

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I returned last night from a four-day pack trip into the Lyell Canyon/Vogelsang HSC area of the Yosemite back-country, and the signs of the coming fall are numerous.

  • Perhaps most apparent is the smaller number of people in the back-country! Although I traveled some quite popular trails I saw only a small number of backpackers. Ah, post Labor Day in the Sierra – my favorite time!
  • Many of the annual plants are dying and turning shades of brown, yellow, and gold. The mule ears have almost all lost their summer green color, the leaves of plants around treeline are beginning to turn yellow and red, and almost all of the grasses have gone to seed and turned golden-brown.
  • Although there has not yet been a real early fall storm, the weather pattern is starting to show signs of approaching weather systems.
  • The leaves of a few aspen trees are beginning to change colors. I haven’t been to the “east side” since mid-August, but in Yosemite I saw a very small number of yellow aspen leaves on trees along Yosemite Creek just yesterday.
  • Even some of the lower elevation plants are changing – also yesterday, I saw red leaves of some of the dogwood trees along highway 120 just inside Yosemite.
Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Shoreline, Upper Young Lake, Sunset

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Shoreline, Upper Young Lake, Sunset

Shoreline, Upper Young Lake, Sunset. Yosemite National Park, California. July 29, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunset light on shoreline trees and rocks below rocky hillside above Upper Young Lake, Yosemite National Park.

This is another in the series of photographs I made on this late-July evening at Upper Young Lake, my favorite of the three in this string of Young Lakes in the Sierra Nevada back-country out of Tuolumne Meadows. This photograph was shot in the last moments before the sun, shining through a bit of smoke from a wildfire in the park, dropped below the rim of the high meadow holding the lake.

I probably could have stayed at this lake and photographed post-sunset light for another half hour beyond sunset. However, the thought of hiking in the dark down a mile-long trail that in places is more cross country than actual trail convinced me to pack up and leave shortly after this.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Commentary

Quick note regarding Sierra Nevada fall color

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Fall color? In July? Apparently I’m not the only one who starts thinking about this well before the colors appear – there were a number of search engine hits here today for the subject. I’ll likely write more about this subject when we get closer to fall, but I thought I’d post just a bit of basic information today.

When – The exact time for peak aspen (and other) fall color in the Sierra can vary a bit depending upon a variety of factors, but right around the first week of October is a good bet. Truly crazed Sierra aspen photographers are on alert from the last week of September through the middle of October.

Where – All over the eastern Sierra. (There are aspens west of the Sierra crest – such as near the tops of Monitor and Carson passes – but most of the color is on the “east side.”) You can find them up almost any eastern Sierra roadway that head up into the range. One of the best areas is around North Lake, South Lake, and Lake Sabrina above Bishop, California.

There is a lot more to say about this… later.