Tag Archives: vogelsang

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Dry Creek at Fletcher Lake

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Dry Creek at Fletcher Lake

Dry Creek at Fletcher Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. September 7, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dry creek surrounded by golden autumn meadow grasses and illuminated by early morning light winds through a clump of small trees near Fletcher Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

The meadow around Fletcher Lake (the site of Vogelsang High Sierra Camp, one of the group of well-known high sierra camps in Yosemite) turns a beautiful golden brown in the late season and contrasts with the green of the small trees gradually taking over the meadow, especially when the grasses are backlit by the early morning light.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Pine Needles, Fletcher Lake

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Pine Needles, Fletcher Lake

Pine Needles, Fletcher Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. September 8, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

During the first weekend of September 2008 I made my first late-season visit to the Sierra, heading to Fletcher Lake in the Yosemite backcountry, a place I often try to visit each year at about this time. I like to get up there as the fall season approaches, and an added bonus this time was the possibility of meeting some fellow photographers who were in the area. (More about that later.)

In the morning of my last day at Fletcher I was up early to photograph the morning light on the rocks and trees around the lake, especially those reflected in the still water at that hour. I was just about finished with that project when I spotted these needles on the shady side of a shoreline grove of trees.

keywords: pine, branch, needle, tree, fletcher, vogelsang, lake, yosemite, national park, california, usa, sierra, nevada, nature, green, fall, autumn, pattern, stock

Photographs: Yosemite

Fletcher Peak and Rafferty Creek Trail

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FletcherRafferty2005|08|28: Fletcher Peak, Rafferty Creek Trail. Yosemite National Park. August 28, 2005. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
Fletcher Peak, Rafferty Creek Trail. Yosemite National Park. August 28, 2005. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

I know this spot well, almost too well. The Rafferty Creek Trail ascends from Tuolumne Meadows to a low saddle called Tuolumne Pass and then, a short distance later, to Fletcher Lake, site of the Vogelsang High Sierra Camp.

I hike this trail at least once each summer and early fall. It seems like it should be a fairly easy hike. It is only about 7 1/2 miles and less than 2000 feet of climbing. But along with nearly everyone I talk to along this trail, I often find that I’m pretty beat by the time I get to this spot just below Tuolumne Pass.

The large peak in the center is Fletcher Peak, which towers directly over Fletcher Lake and the high sierra camp. To the right is Vogelsang Peak. To the left is the ridge extending back above Townsley Lake toward Parsons Peak.