Eastern Sierras

South Tufas

Mono Lake has some spectacular sunrises when the cloud cover arrives. On this morning there was not a cloud in the sky. I got here in the dark and waited for first light. Often it will appear there are no clouds until the sun gets up a bit, and then surprise! Some color shows up. But not on this morning. So what to do? Wait for the alpenglow and the earth's shadow to give some color to the sky providing a nice background for the Tufas and the mountains. And in this case the color showed up in the water as well. It was nice beginning to what turned out to be an eventful day in the high Sierras.

Meandering

On my way to Death Valley I spent four days photographing the eastern side of the Sierras around Mono Lake and south. One of the things high on my list was to find stream with some nice curvature leading up a canyon to the snow capped mountains. I drove all over, up all of the canyons that were open but most of the streams were covered with trees, so while there were leading lines to the mountains, there were none with the stream visible in a meaningful way. None until this particular afternoon when I found this location. OMG! I was ecstatic. I simply love this scene. I shot tons of images of it, came back the next morning to capture the sun just touching the peaks. But in the early morning the cold air meets the warmth of the hot springs and the canyon fills with mist. I couldn't see the stream or the mountains. It was to be a week later when I returned after Death Valley that I captured it without the mist. Seems a slight breeze does wonders for clearing out the mist.

Highlands Grasses

Just to the south of Mono Lake, along highway 168, there is a field that is covered with red brush, snow, sage brush and grasses. After shooting the tufas in Mono Lake I stopped to visit this scene more closely. It was 20 degrees so I did not linger here, got some shots and headed for breakfast at Nicely's in Lee Vining. A pretty good breakfast place by the way.

Light On The White Mountains

The White Mountains of California run north and south paralleling get Sierras and lying to the east of them. From the Lake Crawley area you can see the White mountains to the east and the Sierras to the west. On this evening I had chosen to photograph a canyon and had my back to this scene. When I looked over my shoulder and saw the display that was in progress I dropped everything and repositioned myself. There was not time to get closer, or to try to get over the ridge for a grander picture. There is a road as you can see leading in the right direction, but there was an enormous, deep and muddy puddle blocking the road. I chose not to chance it since I had just that morning gotten stuck in Lee Vining Creek and had to be towed out (no traction on ice). I settled for this image and was happy to get it.

Hot Creek Morning_WS

Convict Lake

Convict Lake is located in the eastern Sierras just south of Mammoth Lakes. Mount Morrison in the background was named after a deputy who was killed in an encounter with a group of convicts. The lake drives its name from the fact that the prisoners who escaped in 1871 came here to hide out.

ConvictLakeSerenity

SouthTuffas

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