Tag Archives: waterfall

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Waterfall and Pond, Japanese Garden

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Waterfall and Pond, Japanese Garden
Waterfall, pond, and trees in a quiet Japanese Garden, Portland, Oregon.

Waterfall and Pond, Japanese Garden. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Waterfall, pond, and trees in a quiet Japanese Garden, Portland, Oregon.

Some years back we used to get to visit Portland, Oregon somewhat regularly when we had family in the area. (Our youngest son lived there for a few years.) Portland is a rather unique place, especially in the central core. I won’t try to explain except to point out that there is a rather unique fusion of cultures in the area. We like the place, though it has been a few years now since our last visit.

Portland seems to me to be a city off gardens. Two wonderful Asian gardens are in the area — the Chinese Garden in an urban setting close to the downtown area, and the Japanese Garden set in more rustic surroundings in the hills. We spent a day in the latter garden, and this photograph of a lush scene of water and vegetation is one of several photographs I made there during this visit.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Seasonal Waterfall

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Seasonal Waterfall
Mist floats above the seasonal cascades of Sentinel Fall in late afternoon light, Yosemite Valley

Seasonal Waterfall. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Mist floats above the seasonal cascades of Sentinel Fall in late afternoon light, Yosemite Valley

Tourists often visit Yosemite Valley in the very late spring and the summer, the season when the best-known waterfalls are flowing strongly — Yosemite, Bridalveil, Vernal, and Nevada falls being the most popular. They are spectacular, and they are worthy of a visit on their own. However, they are far from the only waterfalls in the Valley. (And the Valley is far from the entirety of the park!) There are many less-known waterfalls that a quite beautiful.

Many of these other waterfalls are seasonal, flowing for brief periods when the winter snow melts or coming to life mainly after storms. They tend to be quite ephemeral since the conditions that support them are often rather specific and short-lived. A number of the ephemeral Valley waterfalls are fed by streams having their origins in middle-elevation valleys that are not terribly large. As such, the bulk of winter snow melts over a short period of time… and the falls usually dry up completely. This fall is a prime example. It appears in the right conditions along the southern walls of the Valley (oddly, it is close to another, similar seasonal fall), but by summer it diminishes to a trickle and then disappears. On the day I photographed in mid-April it was flowing strongly following recent storms, producing a series of impressive waterfalls that combine to produce a spectacular drop from the rim to the floor of the Valley.

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

The Kaweahs

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The Kaweah
Ridge and Waterfall in the Kaweah Range near Kaweah Gap on the Great Western Divide.

The Kaweahs. © Copyright 2008 G Dan Mitchell— all rights reserved.

Ridge and Waterfall in the Kaweah Range near Kaweah Gap on the Great Western Divide.

This photograph comes from the High Sierra Trail, an east-west route across the Sierra between the west slopes of Sequoia National Park and Mount Whitney on the eastern Sierra crest. (Although it is technically not part of the route, I regard the final ascent to Whitney on a lateral trail and the descent from the crest to Whitney Portal to be part of the route.) While the north-south John Muir Trail has rightfully become relatively well-known, the High Sierra Trail is not as popular — though in many ways it is the same league. It covers an extraordinary route, climbing from the forested and gradually rising west side slopes up the immense canyon of the Kaweah River, crossing Kaweah Gap in spectacular fashion, descending Big Arroyo to the grand canyon of the Kern River, which if follows north to Junction Meadow before ascending once again to join the John Muir Trail heading south and then finally climb to Whitney Trail crest.

The trail up into the Kaweahs is stunning, with remarkably rugged and alpine scenery on the ascent from the west. It is, frankly, as impressive as anything else in the range. This section climbs the cirque above a popular lake destination, rising on a trail that follows an improbably route high into the mountains in the photograph before turning to cross Kaweah Gap after passing through a garden of small meadows and rocky tarns.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Hanging Valley

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Hanging Valley
Hanging Valley

Hanging Valley. Yosemite Valley, California. March 1, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Yosemite’s Bridal Veil fall emerges from a hanging valley among monolithic granite cliffs in late afternoon light

Late on a winter afternoon, the shadow of cliffs to the west rise up past Yosemite’s Bridal Veil fall and into the hanging valley from which it springs. The valley’s still-sunny eastern slope is covered with brush and trees, but the rest of the scene is almost entirely one of granite, from the relatively gentle V-shaped valley of Bridal Veil Creek to the vertical cliffs of the wall over which the water flows and the base of taller Sentinel Rocks beyond.

Bridal Veil fall comes out of a classic hanging valley. Apparently the creek descended toward a much older Merced River canyon even before glaciers finished (for now, anyway!) carving Yosemite Valley, and this creek cut is own beautiful V-shaped valley. (The V-shape is characteristic of river valleys. If you want to understand more of the life of a creek, when you visit Yosemite you can drive toward Glacier Point and cross the very shallow valley of this creek at a higher elevation. I’ve cross-country skied to it a number of times.) When the Valley was cut into its deeper U-shaped form, the existing valley of Bridal Veil creek was left… hanging.

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.