WHITNEY CREST FROM THE ALABAMA HILLS
Movie Road is the main road through the Alabama Hills area and connects Whitney Portal Road with Highway 395. Even though it may be freezing in the hills in winter, there is a good chance that the roads will be clear of snow up to the edge of the Sierra. Stop by Mobius Arch on your way through.
MOONSET ABOVE MONO LAKE
Sunrise is a good time to photograph a full moon moonset. At that time, there is enough daylight to make the moonset more than just a blown-out disk with everything else black. In this case, it took 1000 mm of lens and a heavy crop to give the moon a larger than life appearance as it set behind a nearby ridge.
EUREKA DUNES
Death Valley National Park is more than just a deep valley and searing temperatures. Off in the far reaches of the park is a valley with the tallest dunes in California. They are located at the end of a rough washboard road after adventuring out beyond civilization. Climbing the dunes is difficult but rewarding. They will sometimes hum a tune when the sand from your footfalls cascade down the face.
SUNSET IN LOST HORSE VALLEY
Joshua Tree National Park is a nice place to visit in the winter or spring. It's a favorite destination for rock climbers as well as for photographers. Close to good bouldering sites and with several campgrounds, Lost Horse Valley is a great place to spend an evening.
TENAYA LAKE SUNSET
Tenaya Lake is located in Yosemite National Park about five miles west of Tuolumne Meadows. It's along the road between the meadows and the valley and pretty much everyone who has traveled that road has stopped at Tenaya Lake. The "golden hour" around sunset usually has a few die-hard photographers waiting out the sunset. Every once in a while, the skies light up with the right combination of clouds and sunset colors to make those die-hard photographers' dreams come true.
GOLD BLUFFS BEACH
Redwood National Park is a compilation of national and state parks originally combined together to protect many of the great stands of old growth Redwood trees. Prairie Creek State Park is a gem of a state park located in the thick of the Redwood forest area. A dirt road leads down to and then along the beach just below a bluff full of Redwood trees and eventually stops at a nice isolated beach campground. The old road now becomes a trail and continues north along the coast toward Crescent City. The beach itself is a great place to walk, explore the coastal dunes and look for Roosevelt Elk.
GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE SUNRISE
This photo was taken from on top of the hill above the Marin Headlands lookout. As luck would have it, the fog stayed below my level and I was able to get this view of the Golden Gate Bridge with San Francisco in the background.
FOREST FIRE SUNSET
As I stepped out of the pizza parlor in Lone Pine one evening, an amazing sunset was forming before my eyes. I got into my car and made it just out of town in time to see a spectacular sunset. As it turned out, a forest fire in Santa Barbara County was salting the sky with smoke. That combined with the lenticular cloud formations along the Sierra crest made for a special event above Mount Whitney.
FORT POINT VIEW
Fort Point is within The Presido in San Francisco and is where the Golden Gate Bridge starts off toward the Marin headlands. The Presidio was a military fort built to protect the bay from invading forces and was in operation from 1776 through the second world war. It has since been decommissioned and in 1994 transferred to the National Park service. It has a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge from below--especially at night.
Montana de Oro State Park
Along the coast just south of Morro Bay is Montana de Oro State Park. The park has a nice campground, beaches, peaks, tidepools and in the spring, California Poppys blooming along the seacliffs.
DANTE'S VIEW
Dante's View in Death Valley National Park is where you can look down at the lowest place in the Western Hemisphere--Badwater. Here is where the Amargosa River finishes it's torturous 185 mile journey through the desert to occasionally form a shallow lake at Badwater known as Lake Manly. When Lake Manly evaporates, strange salt formations are left behind in an area known as the Devil's Golfcouse.
OWEN'S VALLEY NEAR INDEPENDENCE
Winter and Spring are the best times to see storm clouds spill over the Sierra and bunch up against the Inyo Mountains.
ALKALI LAKES
The Long Valley Caldera is located roughly between the towns of Bishop and Mammoth Lakes, California. This area has active hot springs that have formed alkali lakes in the area above Lake Crowley. The alkali lakes are not especially attractive, but their location amidst the Sierra and White Mountains in a high and scenic valley make them one of my favorite stop-offs.
McWAY FALLS
Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park on the central coast of California has one of California's iconic views--McWay Falls. Getting to the beach is not only dangerous, but off limits. That's OK because the trail and overlook provide all the spectacular views anyone would want.
PATRIARCH GROVE
The White Mountains are located east of Bishop, California. Within the White Mountains is the forest service managed Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest area. This area has special significance in that it helps protect the oldest living organisms on the planet, the Bristlecone Pine. Schulman Grove has a visitor's center as well as supposedly the oldest living tree. Patriarch Grove farther up the gravel road at about 12,000 feet has the largest living Bristlecone Pine.
SALTON SEA SUNRISE
The Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when the Colorado River overpowered an irrigation canal being used to bring Colorado River water to the Imperial Valley. The river flowed for two years and formed the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea is a hot, humid, smelly and generally unpleasant place for humans. Birds like it, however, and include it as an important destination during their migration cycle.
STODDARD VALLEY RAINBOW
The Southern California deserts are full of mountain ranges to be climbed by die hard mountaineers. The best time to go is during the winter and spring, when desert life is blooming and the temperatures are quite pleasant. Occasionally, a rain storm blows through leaving fantastic double rainbows in it's wake.
CONE PEAK OVERVIEW
Cone peak is located just above Coast Highway 1 in central California. It is known as having the steepest grade from ocean to peak of any mountain on the entire west coast of North America. The peak is over 5000 feet high and just a little over three miles from the ocean. Access to the trailhead is via Forest Service Road 22S05 near the top of the Nacimiento-Fergusson Road.
COOK'S MEADOW SNOWFALL
I was able to time my visit to Yosemite Valley for the day before an expected snowstorm. It lasted for three days and stranded everyone in the valley while it dumped over two feet of snow on the valley floor. We easily got around in snowshoes and were able to obtain many unique views of otherwise everyday images in the valley.
YOSEMITE DOGWOODS
Each spring, the Merced River is full, the air is cool and the Dogwood Trees are in full bloom. A number of these trees can be found overhanging the river near the Pohono Bridge.
LA JOLLA FROM TORREY PINES RESERVE
The Torrey Pines Reserve just north of La Jolla is a popular hiking destination for both locals and visitors. The main road through the reserve serves as the only road inside the reserve. Branching off this inside route are many trails heading toward cliff side lookouts--with just one making it's way down to the beach. Not very many people visit the reserve at night, but the view is still as spectacular during the evening.
MT. WHITNEY
Mt. Whitney is the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states and is often climbed during the summer. Few climbers try it in winter--but if they do, they usually try the Mountaineer's Route (the chute just to the right of the peak). This photo was a 2x by 3x panorama using a 600mm lens from the Mobius Arch parking lot in the Alabama Hills. The original photo can be zoomed in to see snow tracks right up the Mountaineer's Route.
Mobius Arch
Mobius Arch is located in the Alabama Hills just west of Lone Pine, California. These hills are most known for being the filming location of many western movies and television shows. In fact, Lone Pine is the location of the Museum of Western Film History. The arch itself is located next to Movie Road about a mile and a half north of Whitney Portal Road. There is a small parking lot and a short trail from Movie Road to the arch--but you can't see the arch from the road. Most photographers like to frame Lone Pine Peak or Mt. Whitney through the arch looking west. This photograph was taken at night looking east toward the Inyo Mountains and a flashlight was used to light the arch from underneath.
PIGEON POINT LIGHTHOUSE
This lighthouse is located along the coast highway between Santa Cruz and San Francisco.
BADWATER
Badwater is where the final destination of the Amargosa River is located. The salt has been accumulating for centuries, and whenever the river flow is heavy enough, a lake is formed. The lake is known as Lake Manly and now is only a remnant of a lake that at one time covered 620 square miles. As the water evaporates, the salt forms strange looking hexagonal shapes six to eight feet across.
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK SLIDE SHOW
DEATH VALLEY SLIDE SHOW
REDWOODS NATIONAL PARK SLIDE SHOW