Tag Archives: summit

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

Eastern Sierra Nevada Near June Lake

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Eastern Sierra Nevada Near June Lake
Eastern Sierra Nevada Near June Lake

Eastern Sierra Nevada Near June Lake. Mono County, California. August 10, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Trees ascend sage-covered hills toward the Sierra Nevada crest near June Lake, California.

Near highway 395 in Mono County, the main north-south route east of the Sierra crest, these open stands of large conifers ascend from the high desert sagebrush country towards the peaks of the Sierra crest, which rise much more abruptly on this side of the range than on the gentle west side. The tall ridge is above the June Lakes resort area between Mammoth Lakes and Lee Vining.

While my primary goal on this trip was to photograph in the Yosemite high country along Tioga Pass Road, smoke from a wildfire near Glacier Point in the park was drifting over the Tuolumne area and creating a lot of very non-photogenic haze. I had a hunch that by dropped over to the east side of the range I might be able to get away from the smoke or at least find areas where it wasn’t so thick. The smoke was still affecting the light near Lee Vining, but I didn’t have to drive too far south to get out of its path, though even here there is a bit of haze increasing the effect of atmospheric recession.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Last Light, Mount Conness

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Last Light, Mount Conness
Last Light, Mount Conness

Last Light, Mount Conness. Yosemite National Park, California. June 18, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The final evening alpenglow illuminates the summit ridge of Mount Conness and the west face of Medlicott Dome in the Yosemite National Park high country.

This will be my final photograph of Mount Conness from the evening of June 18, the day that Tioga Pass Road opened this year and the day of one of the most spectacular Yosemite high country sunsets in recent memory. It will be the final both in the sense that I think I’ve now shared the best of the group of images of this sunset and in the sense that it was literally my final exposure of the evening.

The short back-story is that what started out as a fairly unimpressive evening (at least in the photographic sense) transformed over a short period into something extraordinary as the sun dropped to the horizon west of the Sierra and illuminated the clouds from below, creating rare and very special alpenglow conditions over a wide area of the Sierra. (During the week that followed quite a few people commented on this amazing light, which they had witnessed from locations as distant as Mono Lake on the east side and the Central Valley to the west.)

When I made this photograph the show was coming to an end. At this point the sun had already set a few minutes earlier – the exposure was made around 8:45 p.m. – and the light was low enough to require a six-second exposure. While it may seem like Mount Conness (the tallest peak near the left on the skyline) and other features are receiving direct sunlight, this is actually the remaining post-sunset glow in the western sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Pywiack Dome, Tenaya Creek in Flood

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Pywiack Dome, Tenaya Creek in Flood
Pywiack Dome, Tenaya Creek in Flood

Pywiack Dome, Tenaya Creek in Flood. Yosemite National Park, California. June 19, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pywiack Dome towers above Tenaya Creek as it floods surrounding meadows with spring snow melt, Yosemite National Park.

This little spot between Pywiack Dome and Tenaya Lake has interested me for some time. Driving past, I’ve been intrigued by the dome itself (of course!) but also by the small meadow below it where Tenaya Creek winds through a mixture of forest and meadow, and from which the outlet of Cathedral Lake is visible if you know just where to look. In the past, I’ve wandered about in this meadow a bit, trying to photograph lush growth of corn lily plants early in the season.

On this visit, as I drove by on the first day, I was struck by the amount of water flowing here – what I’m used to seeing as a meadow with a stream winding through it was filled from edge to edge with rushing water from snowmelt-swollen Tenaya Creek. I made a mental note to try to come back here the following morning when I thought that light might be interesting. And that’s just what I did on the second day of this visit during the weekend when the pass opened.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Mount Gibbs, Frozen Pond, Morning

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Mount Gibbs, Frozen Pond, Morning
Mount Gibbs, Frozen Pond, Morning

Mount Gibbs, Frozen Pond, Morning. Yosemite National Park, California. June 19, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn light on the snow-capped summit of Mount Gibbs above a frozen pond, Yosemite National Park.

This small pond is perhaps familiar to visitors to Tuolumne Meadows and Tioga Pass, though more likely with a different appearance. Here, early on a cold morning on the day after Tioga Pass opened for the season, the pond is still mostly frozen and it is surrounded by deep snow banks. The summit of Mount Gibbs is just touched by the first morning light as it passes through clouds over the Sierra crest.

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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.