Category: Photography

It has been an unusually wet summer in Mineral King (along with measurable, puddle-making rain in Three Rivers 3 times in July!)

Most of the times I have gone up the hill, it has been wet. Rain, hail, drizzle, fog, overcast. It’s all good. It’s all very good. I pray for rain every day, and I am very very thankful for water.

One long weekend, this was the only photo I took on the only walk I took on the only time I got out when it wasn’t raining!

I had to leave at 7 a.m. one morning. This is how things looked, sort of. When it is really beautiful, the camera doesn’t usually do the trick.

This is Squirrel Creek, just below the Park boundary. It hasn’t had much water in it this year, so when I saw this in the morning, I pulled over to take a picture. I “YESSED!” a couple of times, too.

Not much light on the bridge itself in the morning. It is getting so overgrown around it that there is now only one good place to get photos.

And when I got home to Three Rivers, the ground was WET and there were PUDDLES AGAIN!!!

No red leaves at the Honeymoon Cabin.

No red leaves here either.

Let’s go hiking and see if there are any red leaves further up the valley.

Yellow tunnel ahead – no red leaves there.

Entering the yellow tunnel – maybe there will be red leaves on the other side.

Yeppers, just above Soda Springs!

And at Franklin “falls” – wow, we need rain.

What are these red leaves? I think I ask this question every year, but when the leaves are green, I pay no attention whatsoever to this plant.

There it is again!

No red leaves on Farewell Gap. Plenty of bronze.

Reddish leaves on the way back down.

These yellow leaves were glowing.

I wonder if people who are surrounded by red leaves go in search of yellow leaves?

Did you know that there really is very little red in nature? It’s true!

Last weekend the fall colors were beginning to show in Mineral King. Weird, because it sure still felt like summer. Rather than blather on about the endless heat, I’ll just shut my yap and share some photos.

See that reddish tree? I wonder if it the same one I spent a weekend chasing back in 2012. 2012 was certainly more colorful, but it is still early.

Instead of red leaves, there is weird red stuff on the bark.

Still lots of green in the leaves.

I’ll save the other photos for next Friday, because Fridays are for Mineral King on this blog.

The color and the light and the feel of the air changes in September. It is still green, but not quite as.

The deer get weird.

The squirrels get busy. This is a chicaree messing around with a red fir cone. They drop them like bombs in the early morning on the roofs of cabins. It is rude.

There is a hint of yellow beginning in the cottonwoods.

It is a peculiar change of color.

A reluctant change.

A hesitant change.

The currants aren’t as confused as the cottonwoods.

I don’t know what this is and never notice it in the summer, but it is a confident harbinger of fall.

The East Fork of the Kaweah has dwindled to almost nothing, and in fact, it does dwindle to nothing at one place in the upper valley. Very weird to see it just go away and then re-emerge a few yards downstream. I’ve never seen that before, but maybe I wasn’t looking. The drought is making us all hyper-aware of water in all situations. (I was playing in water coming out of a fire hydrant at home last week as we were testing water pressure – couldn’t stand to see it just flow without some sort of reverence or enjoyment!)

Farewell, Farewell (Gap) and I hope “farewell, Summer” soon.

Trail Guy is retired so he hikes every week in Mineral King. I am not retired so I work. He photographs Mineral King so I post it on this blog.

Lucky Trail Guy.

Lucky You.

Lucky me, because I get to do what I love and (sometimes) even get paid for it.

If you let your cursor hover over each photo, it might give you the brief description.

After almost 29 years of marriage, we are starting to resemble one another (No, I am not growing a beard). He says all the time now, “Nice light!”

This is at the head of White Chief Canyon. Yep. We drink untreated water.

This is looking down on Franklin Lake from the trail up the Pass.

Did you know that Mt. Whitney is visible from Franklin Pass? I had forgotten. Now, I can’t remember if it shows in this photo or not.

These rock formations say “Franklin Pass” to me. Can you hear them talking? Must be the altitude. Actually I have not been on Franklin Pass since about 1983 or 1984. Too far for a day hike. Not for Trail Guy!

From left to right – a tarn (that is fancy mountain talk for pond), upper Franklin Lake, and the barest little edge of lower Franklin Lake. Lower is the one I did a mural of about 4 years ago. FOUR?? Must be having fun, because time is flying.

See? Trail Guy is getting all weird about shapes, light, texture, just like his artist wife.