Mule Days and things

Hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day Weekend. Mule Days has come and gone once again here in Bishop, and it's hard to tell now that anything had ever happened. It's back to our nice slow pace around here.
I guess Mule Days went ok for most. The crowds didn't seem as big to me as they have in past years. I'm sure that gas prices kept some people away.
Mother Nature sure made her apearence though. She brought along an ice cold wind from the north too. BRRRrrrrr. All of us that went to the mules shows on Saturday and Sunday night had to dress like it was the middle of winter. Man it was cold out there. But the mules and the mule skinners did their best to entertain and we still had a great time.
If you've never been to Bishop for Mule Days you have to come sometime. It is a great event. Check out their web site at MuleDays.org

Things have warmed back up nicely the last two days, and it feels like spring in the Eastern Sierra again.

Looks like Mono County is going to start helping with the Tioga plowing. The are starting to plow in from the pass tomorrow. That should speed things up a bit.
Guess that's all for now. I will try to get some new pictures up in the next few days.


Steven on 05.31.06 @ 05:29 PM PST [link]

Lee Vining Creek, Eastern Sierra, Ca
Steven on 05.29.06 @ 09:54 PM PST [link]

Sierra Passes

Just a couple of things for you today.
Sonora Pass and Ebbetts Pass are now open. There wasn't an update for Tioga today.
Since this is Mule Days weekend here in Bishop and we have guest at our house, I won't be posting any updates untill Tuesday.
So I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend.
Steven on 05.25.06 @ 07:30 PM PST [link]

Sonora Pass

Heard from a CalTrans person today that Sonora Pass will be open tomorrow. I'll let you guys know if it does. They're making progress on Tioga, but they're now in the most dangerous area of the road and will be taking it very slow. It is at Olmsted Point where a plow operator was killed by an avalanche a few year back.
Steven on 05.24.06 @ 05:29 PM PST [link]

High Water

If you are going to be near any creeks or rivers in the Sierra over the next few weeks please be carefull. All of streams and rivers are running near or at flood stage and there have been flood warnings issued for many of them. And with the storm that is forecast to come into the mountains on Sunday and Monday, the streams will rise even higher.

There are Flood Warnings posted for Mono County, and Yosemite Valley. Flood Watches have been posted for most of the Western Sierra.
Click Here for Flood Warning updates from the National Weather Service.

Down here in Bishop all of the canals, the Owens River, and Bishop Creek are running high and fast. Today I saw water in a canal that hasn't had water in it in all of the years I've lived here. Also, they have diverted water from Bishop Creek into what I call the flood canal and it has flooded Brockman Lane and they have closed the road. There is a lot of snow melting up in the mountains.

On the drier side of things, I have added 3 new pictures to the gallery. They are from our drive up to Rock Creek Lake this evening. And yes, Rock Creek is rockin!!
Steven on 05.20.06 @ 08:51 PM PST [link]

Rock Creek Lake, Eastern Sierra, Ca
Steven on 05.20.06 @ 08:20 PM PST [link]

Tioga Pass

I was just comparing this years plowing progress with last years. Last year when they were 16 miles in they were in 15 feet of snow and it had taken them a full month to get there. This year they are in 11 feet of snow and it's taken 15 days to get there. So even with the record snowfall this year and the huge March and April, the 8000' area of Tioga Rd has less snow than last year. It will be intresting to see if the snow is deeper higher up. Last year the deepest snow they encountered was in the area they are currently in.
Steven on 05.15.06 @ 03:45 PM PST [link]

Visions of the Sierra

The Visions of the Sierra Gallery is open again
I have loaded it with images taken over the last 7-8 months. Most of these images have never been on the site and will be new to you guys.

I'm going to handle Visions differently now. I am going to keep from 30-50 images in the gallery and all of the will be recent images. I'm not going to put the "classic" images on there at the present.
You will soon be able to veiw the classics on the new site I'm creating SierraVisionsStock.com. It will be a full e-commerce gallery where you will be able to buy and download the images from the site.

Visions of the Sierra will now be a place just to view and enjoy the beauty of the Sierra.

On another subject, Scout and I took a drive up to Division Creek yesterday to check out the Bush Lupines. Bad news, they are done. But don't get upset because you missed them, they weren't anything like last year. In fact, I'd say that it was worse than an average year up there. The flowers were very sparse and even the bushes that were blooming didn't have nearly as many flowers as last year. So I guess now we wait and see what the Bush Lupines on top of Sherwin Grade will do.
Steven on 05.14.06 @ 11:06 AM PST [link]

Wildflowers

Here's a little report on the Owens Valley wild flowers.
The Iris are in full bloom right now. The best areas are in Round Valley. The meadows out there are full of Iris.
We took a drive up to Buttermilk on Thurs. and it is very pretty right now. The Mules Ear and Desert Peach are in full bloom with nice areas of flowers up above the climbing area. There are also some shrubs that I haven't identified yet that have pretty white flowers all over them. As you drive up into the higher Buttermilk country the meadows are just begining to get a few flowers. We found some pretty little white and pink ones blooming in a meadow. we didn't have the flower book with us and I haven't looked them up yet so I don't know what they were.
Also the Mules Ears on the north side of Crowley Lake on 395 are blooming right now.
That's all I know at the momment.
Steven on 05.13.06 @ 07:07 AM PST [link]

Truckee Web Cam

I have had a few people ask me about the Truckee Downtown webcam. They are wondering why it has been down for so long. Yesterday I checked it out and it isn't down at all. If you can't see that cam the problem is your browser. If you are using Internet Explorer you need to install the plugin that it asked you install when you go to that cam page. Once you install the plugin you can see the cam perfectly.
I hope this helps some of you that have been having problems with this cam.
Steven on 05.13.06 @ 06:59 AM PST [link]

Mules Ear and Mt Tom,
Buttermilk Hills, Eastern Sierra, Ca
Steven on 05.12.06 @ 05:31 PM PST [link]

Weather Page

Ok get this,
I go to the weather page this morning and my conditions around the Sierra things are gone. I go to the site that I got them from and it tells me that I must sign up to their site in order to have them on my site. So I sign up and go download the code I need, insert it onto the weather page, and kaboom there is a huge, nasty banner ad on my page that isn't even advertising the weather site!! Needless to say I am no longer using USAWeather.net.

Steven on 05.11.06 @ 10:21 AM PST [link]

Spring Runnoff

Take a look at the picture for today. It's hard to believe that's Lee Vining Creek! It looks more like a major river. We took a drive up that way last evening and man that creek is ripping. I think it's safe to say that the spring runoff is in full swing. All of the creeks in the Eastern Sierra are tearing down their canyons right now. And are close to, if not at, flood stage. So if you are hanging out around them fishing or just wandering, please be careful. It wouldn't be fun to fall into a creek that is running that fast.

The lower gate is still closed in Lee Vining Canyon so you can't get up to the lakes and the pass just yet. It looked like they have started working on the road though. From down in the canyon you could see that all of the avalanche shoots had shot big avalanches down across the road and there are a lot of cool waterfalls flowing down the granite walls. I just love Lee Vining Canyon. It's a magical place all year around.
Steven on 05.09.06 @ 08:57 AM PST [link]

Lee Vining Creek, Eastern Sierra, Ca
Steven on 05.08.06 @ 08:42 PM PST [link]

Photo Raffle

Now that Spring is well under way and the site is up and running smoothly, I've decided to run my Third Photo Raffle. Everything is the same as before, $1 per chance, 6 chances for $5.
I decided the picture will be my Sierra Wave at Sunrise image. It has become one of my most popular images and I do believe that it's my favorite.
Good luck to everyone who buys a chance. And remember that all profits help to pay for the cost of running SierraVisions.
Steven on 05.08.06 @ 01:20 PM PST [link]

Flowers and Tioga

As you can see by the daily picture, the Wild Iris are starting to bloom around Bishop. There aren't any big displays of them yet, but hopefully there will be soon.
Driving by Division Creek I looked over toward the Bush Lupine area, I didn't see any purple from the highway. I haven't had a chance to go up there yet, but when I do I'll let you know what I find.
Most of the flower displays along 395 are still south of Lone Pine. Down around Olancha the Desert Dandelions are everywhere. Also in the Ridgecrest and Little Lake area the Creosote Bush are starting to bloom along with the Brittlebrush. There are also some huge Globemallow, but I think they are on the downhill side of their bloom.

I got the Tioga Plowing Report up today. I will keep it updated as I get the updates.
Are there any guesses at to the opening date this year?
Steven on 05.05.06 @ 06:12 PM PST [link]

Wild Iris near Bishop, Eastern Sierra Ca
Steven on 05.05.06 @ 11:42 AM PST [link]

WildFlowers

Had a couple of questions about the wildflowers here in the Eastern Sierra. The Iris are close, there may even be a few open here and there. One thing I did notice while making all my trips to Mammoth this weekend was that it looks like there are going to be a lot of Iris in Round Valley this year. I'm hoping that they all bloom a once.
As for the Lupines at Division Creek, I don't know yet. But I will take a look tomorrow as I drive by on the way to Victorville. (Have to take dad down to City of Hope for a doctors appointment. And by the way, he is doing very well. Thanks once again for all the prayers and good thoughts.)
There are a few flowers blooming along the Whites right now, but nothing to get excited about. Nothing else is going on yet. The flowers seem to be a little late this year. Last year at this time I had been shooting them for over a month. I'm hoping that the foothills around Bishop will be good again this year. We were above average again in our precpitation for the winter, so maybe the flowers will bloom. we should know in a few weeks.

And I got to say thanks to Inge for letting me know that Yosemite now has the Tioga plowing report up. For those that haven't went to the link, it says that they won't start plowing for another couple of weeks.
It's going to be awhile before we see Tioga Pass open. Maybe even later than last year. I will get my plowing report page up when I get back from So. Cal.

Steven on 05.01.06 @ 08:31 PM PST [link]

Thanks

Thanks for all the great comments guys.
It's good to be back.
Don't have to much to say this morning. I spent all weekend helping Ron move the store so i didn't go fishing and haven't heard anything about how opening day went. Tammy did say that the fishermen staying at Creekside Inn filled up their freezer with fish this weekend though. So it sounds like it may have been good.

Steven on 05.01.06 @ 08:36 AM PST [link]