This May Be the Last Fall Update……But Wait There’s More!

As I promised earlier I planned on heading north to investigate the situation with the aspen. But along the way I stopped to play my favorite game…..it’s called “I Wonder Where This Road Goes?“. The picture of Mt. Tom was from an area that I had wanted to explore for some time. I had just never found the exit. By chance I found it today and really enjoyed the new view. Everything was still damp from the rains that we got last night. There were signs of some pretty serious runoff. Glad I wasn’t there last night. After exploring for awhile I headed north.

Along the way there were areas of color west of 395 above Tom’s Place. The groves at Crowley are now showing some good signs of color. Still lots of green. I pulled off the highway at the McGee Creek exit and headed up the road…..and wouldn’t you know it…..there was this beautiful sight of the snow blowing off of Red Mountain and Mt. Morgan. The light was very contrasty. I also noticed that there was another dirt road that went up the side of the mountain that looked like it would put me in a perfect spot to look straight across the valley and I would have an award winning photograph.

So if you want to know where a road goes….you just have to drive up that road. Well this road quickly narrowed and steepened, yet it was easy going in 4wd. For a ways that is. Less than 1/4 mile from my imagined award winning destination the road suddenly became one of those “Oh, oh.” situations. It was impassable with my vehicle and there was no place to turn around. Well, what goes up must come down. Hopefully in one piece. I had to back down this narrow steep road for about a 1/2 mile before I got to the switchback where I could turn around. I then proceeded up to the McGee Creek parking lot. There is alot of mixed colors….mostly yellow and green. Some of the willows before the pack station are turning orange/red. I didn’t get out to explore as the wind was blowing steadily at about 45 mph.

As I headed out to 395 I looked back and the snow was still blowing off the mountains and the light was still good. So I stopped put on my pack and head up a ridge that looked like it would offer a good view. As always the first ridge is hidden behind a taller ridge that is hidden behind….on and on. Going up I was protected from the wind. As soon as I crested the ridge I was hit with a blast of wind that almost knocked me down. I set up my tripod and camera and got my shots, packed and headed down the ridge. It was much easier coming down.

Convict Lake was being whipped by high winds. The lake was covered with white caps and as the waves broke against the retaining wall at the boat harbor the spray was going across the road. No float tubes out there today. The colors are better along the creek up to the lake. Couldn’t really tell how the west shore was because of the wind. It was fascinating to watch as gusts of wind would just shear water off the surface of the lake and carry it for hundreds of feet as a heavy spray.

Next was June Lake. Here the colors have really improved, I would say that it is a 50/50 mix of yellow and green. If the aspen survive this cold windy spell that’s going to be followed by warming weather, next week may be good. That’s a big MAYBE.

I then drove to Lee Vining Canyon. Here there is a lot of color, maybe 60/40 yellow to green. The wind has really knocked a lot of the leaves off of the trees. Still it should be nice by the end of the week if the weather holds.

That’s it for this report. In the coming weeks I am going to start reviewing some of my favorite books, software and equipment. I will also be putting up tutorials on Photoshop and digital file processing. So stay tuned.

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