05/16/2007: "Road Trip to Dorington"

Took a drive yesterday up and over Ebbetts Pass and then down to Dorington to check out and shoot the Dogwoods I had heard were blooming there. They were blooming and they were beautiful. I think I missed the peak of the bloom by a couple days though. Many of the flowers had been eaten in places and had brown spots on them. I was able to find a couple of trees that looked real nice though. Spent most of my time photographing those couple of trees.

I did a lot of driving around the area. I like it. The forest in there is very nice. Lots of big Sugar Pines and Cedars. It's always interesting walking beneath Sugar Pines. I worry that one of the huge cones will fall from two hundred feet up and knock me in the head. Those cones could do some major damage to your knoggin.

The only problem I see living in that area is fire. If a fire comes through there you are going to loose everything. There's no way to save your home. The houses set in the middle of the forest and they will be toast if there's a fire. It would be cool to live in the forest like that though. At least I'd like it.

Driving across Ebbetts Pass is fun. I'd say it's the wildest of the major passes in the Sierra. Most of the road is very narrow. They don't even bother with a center line, the road isn't wide enough. It sure is pretty up there. There are some amazing Junipers growing near the pass. Old, gnarled warriors that stand up against the Sierra's fiercest storms. I want to go back there this summer and get some pictures of them. It's a good thing I had the road to myself yesterday. Because I was constantly distracted by the Junipers.

There's still quite a bit of snow above 8000 feet. The two lakes you drive past still had ice on them.

All in all I had a pretty good day. Got some good pictures and most importantly I got away from the house and up into the mountains for the day.

I'm going to post a little more detailed post on CalNaturePhoto later on today. I will include some pictures from the trip too.