Back to the Eastern Sierra

LA is a damn rat race.  Fun as it is I have to get away to remind myself how peaceful and special this world is.  Bishop California is my home town and is the perfect medicine for any stressed out person.  I met up with some of my favorite Flickr people Paul Porter, Marc Briggs, and Matt Granz and several other new friends for a weekend full of fun.

We started out not so bright but very early at Convict Lake to capture a sunrise.  I departed Bishop around 5:40 am and zipped up the grade to Convict Lake.  As I departed Bishop there was some nice high cloud cover that disappeared as soon as I reached the summit of Sherwin grade.  They do say "if you don't like the weather in Bishop, wait 5 minutes"or in our case, drive 20 miles.  When I first arrived at the lake I couldn't really tell if there was any color left on the Aspens.  After I snapped my first shot I zoomed in to check the focus and instantly noticed the pop of yellow and got excited.

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I started walking around the shore looking for more interesting foregrounds and saw some amazing color in the reflections on the shore across from me.
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After stumbling around in the dark and tripping over fishermen the sun finally cracked and the apline-glow kicked in full force.
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With full bellies from breakfast at Tom's place we headed back down to Bishop to go see "Sky Rock".  These petroglyphs were carved here hundreds of thousands of years ago and this particular rock is the best local display I have found.  The location of this rock is kept a tight secret for good reason.
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The volcanic tablelands is a pretty awesome place and standing on top of the bluff (Actually pyroclastic flow from the Long Valley caldera) gives you an amazing view of east Bishop and the Owens River.
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Next we decided to visit some old friends of ours .  Up at 10,000ft in a deposit of dolomite you can find the oldest known living things on Earth.  The Ancient Bristlecone Forest is a humbling place to visit.  Standing next to wood that have been there over 10,000 years and trees that have been alive since before the Roman Empire gives you a whole other perspective on life.  Because of these trees we have a look into the past all the way back to 9000BC with a small gap of 500 years._DSC7527_DSC7532

The oldest documented tree "Methuselah" is 4842 years old and still alive with others not far behind.  This is not the tree as its exact location is also a VERY closely kept secret.
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Sunsets from the top of the world are pretty epic...
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We finished the night off with a BBQ and some night shots from my parents neighborhood
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Yea.... Be jealous!  ;)

Comments

  1. Nice shots man! Looks like it was a good weekend in the valley!

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  2. Wow! Impressive set of photos! Beautiful, show off this awesome area! A lot packed into one day!

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  3. Robb:

    The shots on the blog are incredible. Stayed an extra day so still up in Mammoth. Sorry we missed each other!

    Bob Kent

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  4. Sorry I missed it!
    -Nate

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  5. Oh My God... what a fantastic shots! Veeeery good!
    Bye! :-)

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