Hunting for Aspens 2006
I spent the weekend prowling for golden autumn aspen trees in the eastern Sierra. Rather than posting the whole story here, you can read a report at my photography web site.
The short version is that the colors were spectacular (in some areas more than others), the weather did not fully cooperate, and while there will be some color still in another week you should go as soon as posssible.
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Goodbye Winter, Hello Summer 2006
For several years I’ve been joining folks for a Memorial Day weekend trip to the Mammoth Lakes area. We camp in the desert, go out to at least one good dinner, and ski (telemark, in my case) at Mammoth Mountain. I especially like ending the trip with a cross-country trek out to Minaret Vista.
Last Saturday I left reasonably early for Mammoth with a plan to meet my friends for dinner at Roberto’s in Mammoth Lakes. It was a very interesting trip. I took Hiway 108 over Sonora Pass, which had only just opened. There is still a ton of snow over the pass, and it was 22 degrees and snowing as I crossed – a bit unusual for late May.
Since I had plenty of time I took a detour out to the ghost town (and now state park) of Bodie. I had hoped to do some photography – and I did get a few interesting photos – but the weather there also deteriorated after I arrived. There were some spectacular clouds when I got there, but I was wrong in thinking that they were clearing. After leaving the car wearing minimal weather gear I was surprised by my snow! I wandered around (and froze in) Bodie for a couple hours before heading back to Hiway 395.
I arrived at Mono Lake in the late afternoon to find spectacular clouds, screaming winds… and flocks of seagulls at the lake. I stopped at a couple of spots along the west shore to take pictures. As I was going back to my car I looked up and realized that there were scores of gulls circling right overhead, so I quickly grabbed some hand-held shots before leaving. (If you are reading this on my home page, one is posted below.)
I continued on to Mammoth, meeting Owen and Donna for dinner as planned and then retiring to our (free) desert campsite.
On Sunday we headed up to Mammoth to join the throngs getting in one last ski day before summer. Conditions were actually quite good. The light snow the previous day along with cold temperatures kept the snow in condition longer than usual, and we skied until 3:00.
Yesterday we planned to ski out to Minaret View and then head up San Joaquin Ridge. That was not to be. Donna had rented skis at a local sporting good shop and discovered at the trailhead that they had provided her with two left skis! Not good. So she and Owen headed back to town to make the exchange while I headed on out to Minaret View. There I lazed around enjoying the view, waiting for their eventual arrival.
Stay tuned for more photographs later this week.
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Trip Report: Spring Break in Death Valley 2006
So, what does a Death Valley trip entail? I took four days, with the option (not exercised) of a fifth day to come home via the eastern Sierra.
(Note on 4/15/06: I have posted many photographs from this trip at my photoblog site. A few pictures are also posted at this site – see the sidebar for links.)
***Sunday
– I left the Bay Area relatively early and headed down I-5, cutting over to Bakersfield and then heading east toward Mojave, then to Ridgecrest, and finally to Death Valley via the route past Trona and up Panamint Valley and over Hiway 190 to Stovepipe Wells. The original plan had been to camp there on Sunday and head out to Racetrack Playa on Monday, however the possibility of deteriorating weather and the fact that I arrived at Stovepipe Wells fairly early convinced me to keep going. I took the left turn and headed up the Valley to the turnoff for the short paved road to Ubehebe Crater. From there the road is gravel and quite rough with extreme washboard conditions. Quite some time later I arrived at the Playa, but too late for photography, so I headed on a bit further and quickly set up camp in the back of my car as darkness arrived.
***Monday
– I was up very early – before dawn – and I quickly grabbed something to eat before heading back to the south end of the Playa where the biggest collection of “moving rocks” is located. They apparently come off of a small hill at the end of the playa, a hill which is perhaps a half mile from the roadway. At this point the sun was just beginning to hit some of the surrounding hills, but a stubborn clould over the ridge to the east keep the playa in shadow. The wind was screaming across the playa; I can certainly understand how it could be strong enough in bad conditions to move rocks! I photographed in the area by the small hill for awhile and then moved out north and west onto the main portion of the playa. My timing turned out to be just about perfect, as I arrived at a couple of picturesque stones just as the cloud began to clear and large areas of sunlight began to dash across the playa.
After two hours on the playa I decided to start the drive back to pavement. With a number of stops along the way, I arrived back an Ubehebe Crater (where the wind was not even stronger!) around noon and then drove up to Scotty’s Castle to eat my lunch on the lawn there.
After lunch I began my drive south toward Furnace Creek as I watched the north end of the Valley get socked in by the approaching cold front. By the time I got down to the original Stovepipe Wells site the sand was blowing pretty well, and I could see that it was raining at the north end of the Valley. I continued on to Furnace Creek where I got a campsite and then drove up to Zabriskie Point and then on to Dante’s View. Dante’s view was spectacular, but the weather was really starting to get rough with extremely strong winds and rain starting, so I only stayed there a short time before heading back to my Furnace Creek campsite.
***Tuesday –
This was another full photo day. I started by arriving at Zabriskie Point just before the sun came up, and I stayed there for quite a long time photographing the rocks and the far ranges as the sun began to light them up. After finishing here I did the “tourist circuit” of the area south of Furnace Creek, hitting Badwater and Devil’s Golf Course. I went back to Furnace Creek in the early afternoon to get a campsite for another night. Afterwards I did the hike up Golden Canyon to the base of Red Cathedral in surprisingly hot and dry conditions (did I mention the wind?) before heading back up to Zabriskie Point to spend a couple more hours photographing the sunset.
Sunset there had its moments, but the weather was getting more serious once again. It rained hard enough at one point that I had to grab my gear and take shelter in the car for a short time. During the dry intervals the shafts of light coming through the clouds over the Panamint Range were quite spectacular, but the sky was completely covered my clouds by the time that sunset occured. That evening back at Furnace Creek it RAINED… hard. I must bring this weather to Death Valley. It has rained all three times I’ve been there and on one occasion we actually got a few flakes of snow at Scotty’s Castle.
***Wednesday
– I had originally thought about heading over to Bishop and an inexpensive hotel on Wednesday night, with the idea of photographing the eastern Sierra late on Wednesday and again on Thursday morning. But the weather still wasn’t clearing up and the idea of driving all the way up Hiway 395 and then over the crest in snow was not appealing. Instead, I decided to go with “Plan B” and start home. I was on the road early, so once again I saw a colorful dawn over the Panamints. Although I thought I might be driving out of the weather as I went south and west, I was surprised by rain soon after Ridgecrest and as I crossed the pass to Bakersfield I actually drove through light snow. There were tremendous rain squals in the Central Valley, but it finally began to clear up as I got closer to home.
Once again, I realize that Death Valley is a land of extremes: hot, dry desert with snow on the surrounding peaks, extreme winds, huge scale of landscape, long gravel roads, vast areas that are perhaps almost never visited.
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Same Place, Almost the Same Time?
From the description of his snow hike, it sounds like Tom Mangan (from Two-Heel Drive) and I must have been atop Mission Peak yesterday at just about the same time.
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To the Valley and Back in a Day, or Trying to Channel Ansel
Sometimes one must go to Yosemite.
Late last week we had some cold and wet weather in northern California, with the kind of late winter storms that bring lower than normal snow lines. In this case, snow in the San Francisco Bay area was found down to 2000′ feet or even a bit lower – low enough to also bring a good snowfall to the Sierra Nevada foothills and to Yosemite Valley. (The Valley is only at about 4000′ so snow there is not a sure thing; it can just as easily rain.)
I live about 200 miles from the Valley via the town of Merced and Hiway 140 – a bit less via Tracy and Hiway 120, but that route goes a bit higher and road conditions are more likely to be an issue this time of year. Being that my goals included a photo of the Valley in morning light from the famous Wawona Tunnel viewpoint, I needed to leave very early. I was up at 3:00 a.m. and on the road a half hour later.
It is a strange experience travelling to and from the Valley in nearly complete darkness, only to spend the day in brilliant light. In any case, the sky barely began to lighten near Merced and the sun was in the sky by the time I passed through Mariposa – normally a hot and bustling place, but this time quiet and cold. Shortly I passed through Midpines and then dropped into the Merced Canyon at Bryceburg, following the river toward the park beneath foothill summits covered with snow. I passed by nearly empty parking lots at the border hotels and then drove up the narrow section of road into the park.
First stop in June would have been Bridalveil Falls, but this time I headed straight up to Wawona Tunnel, to find a stunning early morning view. The entire Valley was still snow covered as neither wind nor warmth had time to remove the previous night’s snow from the trees. I joined the line of photographers at the edge of the overlook, finding a small open spot at the far left of “the zone” from which unobstructed shots are possible. Among the freezing photographers were several of us using digital SLRs, a few using point and shoots, and one fellow with a giant view camera exposing 17″ wide negatives.
Leaving this overlook, I headed back down into the Valley, thinking I would work my way up the road and eventually get a decent breakfast somewhere. But every turn revealed another view that demanded I stop, set up my camera and tripod, and quite frequently trudge through the foot-deep new snow. What would otherwise be unremarkable sections of forest were transformed by the new snow and the morning light. I even stopped for images I would normally pass by – as they are “done to death” – like the view of Yosemite Falls across the open meadows.
I finally made it to Curry Village for an overpriced coffee and pastry at around 11:00. Since the midday light is less conducive to photography I decided to hike – though I could have skied – up to Mirror Lake. I ended up hiking about a mile and a half past the lake to a bridge over the (Tenaya?) Creek before turning back and starting to think about the long drive back. The plan was to drive down the north side road, stopping for pictures at suitable points, and to pause at one of the turnouts for a nap before one last visit to Wawona and then the drive home.
By this time it was warming up on the Valley floor, treating hikers to a steady fall of “snow bombs” from overhead trees and slightly diminishing the magic of the scene, at least compared to the early morning. I headed down the valley, stopping for more photography at a couple of my favorite meadows, then taking a short nap before heading back up to the Wawona Tunnel overlook and a hope-for spectacular sunset.
I arrived at the overlook a bit earlier than 5:00 only to find a huge crowd of photographers. I thought for a moment about my plan B – the turnout just above the tunnel, from which spectacular photos of El Capitan, Half Dome, and the Merced Canyon are also possible – before deciding to see if I could squeeze into the line of photographers waiting for the magic.
A bit about this “photo space” at the overlook. There is a prime area along the low rock wall near the first entrance (when ascending from the Valley). This area might be about 30 feet wide; from here a view of the Valley mostly unobstructed by close trees is available – with the exception of a 6 foot wide section where one finds a tree blocking Bridalveil Falls. Usually my favorite spot is down low near the left end of the photo line, but that spot was totally gone when I arrived. So I headed toward the 6 foot gap described above and waiting… hoping that someone might become impatient and leave. I was lucky and a small space opened just far enough to the right of the gap and I set up my tripod.
While many visitors to this spot pull in, get out of the car, gawk for a few minutes, and leave, photographing this scene (or almost any scene, for that matter) requires much more patience and attention. Despite the obvious precedents for this shot, there are quite a few significant variables at work – ignoring for a moment the time of year – some of which are very fleeting. For example, the “normal” image tries to capture all of the famous Valley points: El Capitan, Clouds Rest, Half Dome, Sentinal Dome, Bridalveil Falls, and the Valley floor – usually in landscape orientation. But it doesn’t have to be that way. For example, a portrait orientation can create greater depth and give more attention to the foreground trees; a tighter crop can produce more detail, etc.
On top of that, as the day ends the scene is anything but static. On this evening there were clouds to the west and the light seemed to disappear quickly. But then the real show began: fog began to appear among the trees on the Valley floor, a band of light progressed from Sentinal Dome, to the ridgeline below Glacier Point, across Half Dome, and finally across the summit of Clouds Rest. High clouds gradually emerged, acquired texture, and began to take on a subtle pink glow. The clouds behind us turned golden and this light warmed the color in the Valley. In the end, capturing a photograph of this scene may turn out to be a fancy excuse for standing in one place and watching this slow transition.
No one wanted to break the spell and leave, but finally the light became too dim.
I got into the car, cranked up the heat to thaw out my frozen feet, drank the last coffee from my thermos, and began the dark drive back home.
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Mission Peak and More
Today’s hike took me up Mission Peak… again. I’ve been to the top of this peak above Fremont, California four times recently. Today I started a bit earler – I was on the trail just after 7:00 a.m. – so I had a chance to extend the hike a bit.
I climbed the main trail to the junction with the Hidden Valley trail just below the face of the peak. Here I turned right and headed up this valley past the private residence and then up the sometimes muddy trail through oaks and grassland next to the creek before finally turning left again to reach the ridge. (This is the spot where I was almost blown off the mountain a few weeks ago – today it was fairly calm.)
Instead of heading left to Mission Peak I turned right and followed the trail towards Monument Peak, which is the high point in Ed Levin Park above Milpitas. This route follows fire roads along the ridge, though that description of the terrain may create a somewhat inaccurate view. When I think of “ridge” I think if a relatively sharp high mountaintop with some kind of drop off on both sides. The landscape up here is not like that; the ridge is really more of a very wide, rolling flat area that goes on for miles. It is almost all wide open with nothing but grass and some rock outcroppings.
I continued along past the turnoff to the closed dirt road to Mt. Allison, the highest point on the ridge at over 2600′ and dropped down to a junction in a flat marshy area before ascending toward another ridge. At this ridge there was a very confusing sign. This large sign indicated that the Monument Peak trail was straight ahead, but just beyond was a smaller sign indicating “restricted area.” I compromised and took a single path route around to the left, soon hitting the fire road again, and not long after that arriving at the rocky summit of Monument Peak. It occurred to me that I had seen fewer people up here than I would see on a typical Sierra Nevada day hike.
After a snack and a drink I turned around and headed back the way I came, with time for a brief detour to the top of another point just north of Monument Peak. Before long I was back at the ridgeline junction with the Hidden Valley trail. This time I went straight along the ridge to reach the summit of Mission Peak, which was now becoming quite crowded. From here it was a matter of descending the usual route down the crowded main trail.
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High Winds and Aggressive Cattle
Yup, that was my morning on Mission Peak.
I ascended via the Horse Heaven trail again this morning, starting a bit earlier this time. It was extremely – and surprisingly – windy right at the parking lot, and it just got windier as the morning went on. But first, the cows…
The route I followed cuts off to the right just after the start of the trail and then ascends steadily through range-land on a dirt road. Eventually the trail goes straight ahead and becomes a regular footpath as the road winds off to the left. After ascending a short section of switchbacks and cutting up through a little ravine, the trail momentarily levels off. There is a fork here; last week I went left and straight up the hill so this time I thought I’d try the straight ahead route. I passed a big cow and a moment later she started bellowing. I didn’t think much of it at first but when I looked up I realized that the trail was heading through a bunch of calves, and she didn’t seem to like this. I looked back and she was heading my way so I headed off the trail to go around the baby beasts – but she kept coming. At this point I decided that perhaps that other, steeper trail was looking a bit more inviting so I backtracked and took that fork.
Fifty feet up this trail another big cow started heading my way and didn’t back off until I yelled “hey!” at her. Strange. Perhaps the high winds had them on edge.
I ascended the first part of this steep trail and picked up some very strong winds, especially going across a low saddle before a descent to a creek crossing. Above the creek the trail again ascended steeply, eventually on a completely exposed spine of hillside. The wind was blowing me off balance and once or twice I stopped to wait for it to diminish. After joining the main (?) trail I crossed another windy saddle before descending to the Moore Grove trail junction and a sheltered area.
From here it was only a short distance to the ridge on a trail that was largely protected from the wind. But the sheltered area ended after I passed through the cattle gate and climbed to the open saddle below Mission Peak. The wind was screaming through here – enough to stop me in my tracks at a couple points. At first I thought of descending into the valley on the other side to escape the wind but not knowing where that trails ends up I finally decided to try the ridge. Where the trail was to the left of the ridge the wind was relatively calm, but where it followed the ridge top or crossed to the east side I was hit by a gale. Needless to say, I did not stay long on the summit – just long enough to notice that there were very few people up there today to enjoy a view that extended all the way to the snow-covered Sierra crest.
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No Day for a New Year's Hike!
Depending upon what counts as a hike, I may have broken the tradition of the New Year’s Day hike this year. We’ve been in the midst of a series of big Pacific storms, and even if I had tried to hike at the usual places yesterday they would likely have been closed. So I ended up starting the hiking year with an urban hike down the nearby bike and walking path.
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New Year's Day 2006 Hike?
It is my tradition to try to get out for a New Year’s Day hike. I haven’t decided where I’ll go this year, though something challenging seems like a good start to the year. Perhaps Mission Peak (2000’+ climb) or a very long hike like the one between New Almaden and Los Gatos? The weather may play a role in the decision this year, too.
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Season's First Ski Trip
I’m just back from Squaw Valley where my buddy Owen and I put our telemark skis back on for the first time this season. We’ve had one storm (last week) that was a bit warm, but the snow on the upper mountain was absolutely wonderful. Surprisingly, there were very few skiers sharing the slopes with us.
It was a long drive. I’m tired. That’s all for now…
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