Favored Locations In The Eastern Sierras

As you may have gathered from previous posts, the Eastern Sierras is one of my favorite places to spend time.  Here are a few of the spots that I particularly like.  Highway 168 out of Bishop, CA, will take you into a beautiful area of the Sierras following Bishop Creek to the west and into the mountains. The scene above is Bishop Creek on the way to South Lake.

Not far away is North Lake a very pretty lake in late September and early October. It is the place to be early in the morning just before the sun hits the mountain peaks. You will know you are in the right place by the crowd of photographers. A picture of this lake was the screensaver image on iMacs a few years ago. Whenever I am in the Sierras in early October I head for this lake to catch a beautiful sunrise. What I really want is an image of this location during Autumn color with snow on the peaks. Just missed it a

 couple of years ago.

The next best thing is North Lake with mirror-like reflections, autumn color, and clouds in the sky.

North of Bishop in Long Valley there is no end to the beauty.  I photographed this little mountain one morning as the sunlight first reached it washing across those ridges (a different photo from above). It has been one of my favorite little mountains since. This was shot in the morning before sunrise. Notice the Belt of Venus behind the clouds in the distance, the Owens River in the foreground.

Looking to the west from the same location as the previous image the sun was just beginning to hit the storm clouds, lighting up the ridges.

A snowstorm in McGee Canyon transforms it into a magical place. I am particularly drawn to this canyon as McGee Creek flows here. I caught my first fish in this creek and we lived, at the time, in an old shack very close to where the creek runs out to Lake Crowley. I have been here in all kinds of weather but by far prefer it when the snow is falling.