Near the end of October last year, while returning from a fall color visit to the Western Sierra Nevada, I decided to make a stop at a Central Valley location where I have photographed migratory birds in the past. I wasn’t expecting to find the winter birds that I usually see there, but I was surprised to find large numbers of other birds that usually diminish at this spot later in the season. Among them were large groups of great egrets.
Continue reading Egret and Chick, Evening
I took me a while to figure out this location in Utah, along the edge of Boulder Mountain. Years ago we drove through here in the spring, and I was astonished by the huge aspen groves. I resolved to return in the autumn, and a few years later we did —timing our visit to synchronize with peak of California’s Eastern Sierra aspen color. It turns out that the color change earlier in Utah, and by the time we arrived the groves were past their peak.
Continue reading Boulder Mountain Aspens, Evening
We arrived at Salt Creek before sunrise, planning to walk down to the end of the boardwalk and photograph some further areas at dawn. It used to be that you could continue on from there and investigate other interesting terrain, but there is now no obvious way off the boardwalk, likely because the park service is trying to protect those areas. So we photographed from the boardwalk as the sun came up.
Continue reading Boardwalk, Morning
Although it might see counter-intuitive for a place like Death Valley National Park, these mountains typically are snow-capped in the winter. The highest point in the Panamint Range is Telescope Peak, at an elevation of just above 11,000′. That puts it in the alpine zone, and although moisture is usually scarce here, when it does come it can produce snow at that elevation. A cold storm had recently passed, and the snow level in the photo is lower than usual.
Continue reading Snow-Capped Telescope Peak