Aspen Slope. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Autumn aspens descend from a ridge to the shore of an Eastern Sierra Nevada subalpine lake.
This spot is probably familiar to you, especially if you use the version of the Mac OS that used a different photograph of the feature as its branding. This aspen forest or grove — which someone once aptly referred to as the “Cheetos Forest” — is an example of something you can find in many Sierra locations, namely aspen groves that follow a watercourse as it descends from the heights. The result can be the appearance that the grove itself seems to flow over the landscape.
This grove also provides a notable example of other transitions that may take place within a single aspen grove. The color variation from top to bottom here is striking, with red autumn leaves up high, a distinct orange band in the middle, and then yellow/gold trees as the trees fan out just above the lake. The size of the trees also evolves within the grove from very small “scrub aspens” higher up to larger (though still not gigantic) trees lower down.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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