Home Again, Home Again

Back from the Eastern Sierra. First day was kind of an adventure, as I couldn't find my tripod head and ended up going to Palo Alto to get a new one. On the bright side, I have a much nicer tripod now. Drove through Yosemite and stopped for a sec near Olmstead Point to snap a few pics. Went over the Tioga pass into Lee Vining. The sun was setting, so we drove up the Walker Creek Road took some pictures of some aspens at near peak color. Drove on to Mammoth once the light failed. I saw the Milky Way from the car and it lived up to its name for once. Got to Mammoth Lakes a little before nine. We discovered that the town pretty much rolls up the sidewalks at 9, so we had a spot of trouble getting dinner.

Got up the next morning at four AM. Actually, I fell asleep on the bed while "resting". Drove up to Convict Lake before sunrise. There were some nice trees at the base of the mountains surrounding the lake. I shot wide, mostly. Discovered the ring mount for my neutral density filter was not in my pack. Damn. It was still awfully dark there at eight, so we moved on to June Lake where we got coffee before moseying onward. We went on the June Lake Loop and found a really cool stand of aspens in color from which I got the above picture. We went back up the Walker Creek road which turned out to be quite an adventure, so it was good we had the 4WD truck. It was wicked fun ramming around on that road! Got some more mountain and foliage shots. Took a short break to catch our breath and offload images back at the hotel and then we headed south, to Bishop in the Owens Valley. We stopped there to check out the Mountain Light Gallery, which was started by Galen Rowell. Beautiful pictures there. We then hopped in the truck and headed southward still to Big Pine and then up to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. We got there before sunset, but only just, so the shooting was a bit rushed. I guess we'll have to go back again some time. Those trees are amazing. Some are over 4000 years old! It was well after dark by the time we got back and was really peaked at that point.

The last morning I got up at 4:30 so we could get to the South Tufa shore on Mono Lake by 6. We did and I think I got some neat pictures such as:



We then had a fine breakfast at Nicely's in Lee Vining and headed back to the Valley. We took Route 108 in hopes of spotting some more foliage on the way back, but that didn't pan out. The scenery (what I didn't sleep through) was really nice nonetheless.

I was really tired most of the time, but I am otherwise pleased with this trip. With a little luck, I got some decent pictures that I will post at some future time. Oh, last night I slept over twelve hours, so I'm feeling a lot better. :-)