Skip to main content

Little Lakes Valley, High Sierras, CA

 

Little Lakes Valley is a wonderful place located at the end of Rock Creek Road in the Eastern Sierras. It is a popular hiking area with a relatively small parking area so getting there early is a premium.  We arrived at the 10,000 ft elevation of the parking lot well before sunrise.  The stars were absolutely sparkling in their brilliance.  Or goal was to be at one of the lakes before sunrise so we would be assured of still, mirror-like surfaces to capture a reflected sunrise on the peaks.  We didn't take into consideration that the uphill trail would be covered in ice, so our assent to the lakes was slowed.  We were at this little viewpoint as the first light began illuminating the peaks in the distance.  As you can see we were standing on frozen ground to get this image.  We grabbed this shot and then we were off to the lake.
My intention was to first photograph Marsh Lake and the go on to Heart Lake, but in the dark I missed the turnoff to Marsh Lake (things looks so much different in the dark), and we ended up instead on the shore of Heart Lake, just in time to capture some early morning reflections.
It is mostly an uphill hike to these first lakes and then the valley seems to level off.  I have never been farther than Heart Lake and would love to return to this beautiful valley to explore the rest of it. 

Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 25, 2023 at 11:18 AM

    Gorgeous photos. I admire your commitment to getting up early to get the shot.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All comments are moderated. Please be patient. Your comment may take a while to appear. Thank you.

Popular posts from this blog

Family Life Of Red Foxes

The family life of a red fox is a joy to observe.  The kits are very much like puppies, jumping on and chasing each other almost the entire day.  Of particular interest is how the Vixens teach the kits to eventually become self sufficient around their food supply.  There are two vixen in this family unit, the mother and grandmother, and I can not tell them apart.  The kits you see here are still suckling from their mother.  But by this time in their young lives she is well on the way introducing them to game.  In the beginning she will stash the game, encouraging the kits to forage for it.  The next step in the process you can see here, where she brings game directly to the kits.   Here she is dropping a rabbit for them.  At this stage in the teaching she has killed the rabbit.  The next stage will be for her to bring them live game.  The little black one grabs the rabbit and makes a run for it getting away from his siblings. A...
1 comment
Read more

Red Foxes

I had never experienced anything quite like photographing red foxes.  I was with them nearly all day, for three days in a row.  I was so taken by them, especially the way they related to each other.  Above is the dog fox, the adult male of the group, with one of his offsrping, a female kit fox.    In this family group there were two vixen, one was the grandmother, the other the mother of three kits.  The adult females attended the den all day with one or the other going off to hunt, returning with food for the kits.  Missing most of the day was the dog fox and when he would return the kits all gravitated to him. All of the kits seemed to adore the dog fox but the moments between him and his daughter were especially touching.   What a gorgeous, photogenic animal he is.  When I returned a year later he was still there and there was a whole new brood of kits.  I am hoping to return again this year having missed last year due to a bout ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Art Display At The Center For Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa

 The Center for Spiritual Living Santa Rosa, has a wonderful program that encourages artist members to display their work.  The work is hung in the Social Hall and typically has about twenty pieces hanging for two months at a time.  On March 1rst I will be hanging several images taken in Iceland, along with some wildlife images, including foxes, coyotes, eagles and kites.  I will also have some paintings by my mother and two of my own.  I am pretty excited about this showing.   One of the pictures I will have in the show is of Godafoss, a beautiful waterfall in Iceland.  When I first saw pictures of this waterfall I knew I wanted to go to Iceland to take pictures of it.  This composition required gettin into some very cold water.
1 comment
Read more