Weather Next week

If you are planning on being in the backcountry this coming week be prepared for winter weather. There are a number of storms heading into the Sierra starting tonight, with the stronger storms starting on Tuesday. At the moment there is a chance of up to six inches of snow in the backcountry by Thursday and they are forecasting temps in the teens and high winds.
Steven on 09.30.06 @ 01:55 PM PST [link]

A little get-a-way

Tammy and I decided to get away for the day so we took a little drive up 395 and here is what we found.

Just got back from a drive up 395 to some of the "hot spots" for fall color in the Eastern Sierra. I was very surprised at what I found.
Guess I'll start to the North and work my way on down.

Conway Summit is still mostly green. Just not much happening up there right now.

Lundy Canyon: In the lower part of the canyon, around the campgrounds, the aspens are awesome. They were glowing so bright in amongst the pines. I'd say that this area is peaking right now. I don't think we saw a green aspen there.
Up at the lake is a different story though. I'd say it's about 5o% green and 50% yellow up there. Most of the good color is on the back side of the lake, but as you get near the lodge there is some awesome color. The peak that towers over the lodge has beautiful trees all along it's base. Once again it is about 50-50, but the combination of the two colors with the dark rock of the peak is awesome. The light was much to harsh while I was there to get any pictures.

June Lake Loop: The Parker Bench is looking very nice. I'd say about 60% yellow and 40% green. If you are in the area I'd say it would be worth it to check it out.
On the Grant Lake, Silver Lake side of the loop, the high canyon walls are amazing right now. Lots of yellow and orange. The canyon is also changing quite a bit. I'd say over 50% yellow. I was very surprised at how much of this area is changing, it's more a middle of Oct area. Those of you planning to visit June Lake in the second half of Oct. might be very disapointed. There are enough trees changing right now that a windy period will severely hurt the leaves. I'd say that this area of the loop will be peaking by next weekend or early on the week of the 9th.
The June Lake, Gull Lake side of the loop is much the same. And maybe even farther along. It was hard to tell because I was going the wrong way to see how the tree were glowing. But it looked like a lot of trees were changing.

The trees at Crowley Lake are just getting going, but the trees high up on Hilton Creek looked very nice. Also the hills just west of Toms Place, above the meadow are awesome now.

Rock Creek Lake: Forget it. Don't bother to go there. Most of the trees got bitten by the cold. There are a few patched here and there that look good. But if i only had a short time to shoot in the Eastern Sierra, I'd stay away from Rock Creek this year.

I think the bigest surprise of all today was Round Valley. The cottonwoods in Round Valley are not only begining to change, some are full on gold!! This is at least 3 weeks early. I hadn't been out there in a couple of weeks. Wow was I surprised.

Well there you go. If you are visiting the Eastern Sierra in the next two weeks, there should be some beautiful images for you to take. After that is going to be a crap shoot though. Who know what you'll get.

Oh, something else you guys should know, becuase this could change everything very quickly, the weather forecast for this weekend is for cloudy conditions with a chance of showers. And the forecast for next week is that we may see our first snow of the season around the middle of the week. Welcome to Autumn in the Eastern Sierra :-)

Steven on 09.29.06 @ 06:54 PM PST [link]

Near Conway Summit, Eastern Sierra, Ca
Steven on 09.29.06 @ 06:52 PM PST [link]

Upper Twin Lakes at Mono Village, Eastern Sierra, Ca
Steven on 09.28.06 @ 09:50 AM PST [link]

The Ol' Fisherman

"The Ol' fisherman"
In Memory of my Dad

Standing in alpine water
Feet frozen in their
Wool socks and waders,
He raises a benumbed hand
To wipe his runny nose
And adjust the tilt
To the ol' fishin' hat.
For hours now he's stood there,
Casting and retrieving..
Casting and retrieving.....
Casting and retrieving........
Knowing deep down in his heart
That out there somewhere
swims a trout.
A trout with enough
hunger or curiosity
To give his fly a try.

Last night at 10:45 my father passed away. As many of you know, he had been fighting lung cancer for the past 10 months.

I can think of no finer tribute to my dad than this poem that I wrote for him 10 years ago. His greatest joy was fishing the lakes of the Sierra. Rock Creek Lake, Intake II up Bishop Creek and Twin Lakes outside of Bridgeport were his favorites. We spent many a wonderful day fishing those lakes. Some of the days the weather was beautiful and perfect, some days it was windy as can be, and some days it was just down right nasty. But we aways had a great time and if you fished with dad, you caught fish.

His pain is now gone.
His soul is free to fly
over his beloved Sierra waters.
The Ol' Fisherman has gone home.

Steven on 09.28.06 @ 08:00 AM PST [link]

Address Change

If you have the home page saved as a bookmark, you may have to re-save it. If you notice, the address has changed and it now goes through SierraVisionsStock.com
If you click on the bookmark and it takes you to the home page, then don't worry about it. But for some of you it may take you to the SierraVisionsStock home page. Then you need to change it.
Steven on 09.26.06 @ 10:04 AM PST [link]

New Images

Just put up six images shot this evening at Lake Sabrina. They are in the Newest Images Gallery in Visions of the Sierra.
Steven on 09.25.06 @ 07:00 PM PST [link]

Lake Sabrina, Eastern Sierra, Ca
Steven on 09.25.06 @ 06:28 PM PST [link]

Bishop Creek Colors

Just got back from Bishop Creek. Above 9000 feet the colors are really starting to pop. Lake Sabrina is looking very nice all around the lake. Lots of gold, red, and still some green. The trees by the bridge where the road first narrows are looking good too.

Up at North Lake, the trees along the road and at the campground look very nice. The trees on the other side of the lake have yet to change.

On the South Fork things are looking very nice on the hill sides. They are also nice up near Parchers. The trees along the road just below South Lake are awesome right now.

Aspendell is still green, but it always seems to change last. The large area of small trees above Cardinal Village are starting to look pretty good. They still need another week or so though. The trees around Intake II are also still green, but the little patch on the hillside is glowing gold.

I took pictures, but the wind was blowing pretty steady and most of them came out blury. I'm heading back up tomorrow morning and plan on hiking along the trail at Sabrina. I'm hoping that the wind isn't blowing.

If tomorrows pictures come out looking good then I will post them in the gallery.


Steven on 09.22.06 @ 06:02 PM PST [link]

Lake Sabrina, Eastern Sierra, Ca
Steven on 09.22.06 @ 05:48 PM PST [link]

Update on Site Remodel

I just finished reworking the Weather page. All of the links are now current and working. I had to do away with the regonal forecast because I have never found a replacement for the scrolling thingy that I had. I see them on other site, but when I go to the weather site that does them, I can't find where to get one.

I have also done away with the book store. I have never recieved anything from Amazon for selling those books. I was supposed to get gift certificates from them. Never got one, so I'm no longer selling books for them.

All of the main pages have been updated now. I will get to the lesser pages in time.

Have you seen my add for SierraVisionsStock? Well I was hoping to have it up and running by now, but it has turned into a nightmare. I am having all kinds of problems getting the site to work right and now my web host is having issues and I can't even do the work I want to on it. I will get it figured out though. But for now SierraVisionsStock is still not open for buisness and I'm not sure when it will be.
Steven on 09.20.06 @ 01:17 PM PST [link]

Smokey the Valley

Yuck!!! It's so smokey in the Owens Valley this morning. It's like it's over cast out there. Can't see the mountains or the sky.
I looked on the visible satellite and I found where the smoke is coming from. It's coming from the Day Fire down in Southern California. Those of you that live down there know all about this fire. For those that don't live down there, the Day Fire is a nasty fire that started on 9-4. It was burning in the hills of Ventura County for about a week and didn't even get any media atention. Then it decided to get close to Hwy 5 and they had to close the hwy. That was the first we heard of it. Then the winds kicked up this week and this fire went nuts. It has burned 80,000 acres and is now threatening many homes and communities. It's also pumping a ton of smoke into the Sierra and Owens Valley thanks to the cold front just moving into California.

But on another side of this, the smoke is creating some really cool light out there and as a photographer it might be nice to go find some early fall colors to shoot.
Steven on 09.19.06 @ 09:57 AM PST [link]

Smokey Mountains

There is a lot of smoke pouring over the Sierra Cest this evening. I don't know where the fire is. I was up to Convict Lake and you couldn't even see the Minarets from the highway. And by the time I got back to Bishop, the smoke was starting to come into the valley. I am pretty sure that this isn't smoke from the Sawmill Fire. This is coming from the west side of the Sierra. I will keep you posted.
Steven on 09.18.06 @ 06:47 PM PST [link]

Sawmill Fire update

Things are going well on the Sawmill Fire. They are at %40 contained and have lowered the acres burned to 7500.
They are predicting full containment of Wed. the 20th.

Steven on 09.18.06 @ 11:38 AM PST [link]

Sawmill Fire

There is a large fire burning 8 miles east of Benton in the Inyo National Forest. It started Thursday evening and had burned 1000 acres. With the help yesterday's high winds the fire has now grown to 8000 acres and is %0 contained.
The smoke from this fire was blowing to the east, but since the cold front moved through yesterday, it has been moving down into the Owens Valley. It's not as bad right now as it was this morning, but it's still pretty heavy in the air.

Here is the latest info I have on the fire.
The Sawmill Fire is burning in the northeastern part of the Inyo National Forest and on adjacent BLM land. The fire is approximately 6 miles from Benton Hot Springs and 8 miles from the town of Benton. The very high winds that hampered fire suppression efforts yesterday have subsided today allowing 5 helicopters and one air attack fixed wing to assist in the firefighting efforts.

Highway 120 east remains closed from just east of Navy Beach at Mono Lake to the intersection of Benton Crossing Road and Highway 120.

This is from the incident website located here: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/498/


Steven on 09.16.06 @ 04:27 PM PST [link]

Fall in the air

Fall is in the air this morning. The ol' north wind roared all night long and it's still blowing pretty hard. I just hope it's not tearing the leaves from the aspens up in the mountains.
I took a drive up to Rock Creek Lake a couple days ago and the trees are right on the verge of changing. This cool weather that is forecast should really kick them into gear. If the wind doesn't do it's dirty work first. I think things will be ok though.

Haven't been up Bishop Creek since last week, so I don't know what's happening up there. Maybe Tammy and I will get to run up there today or tomorrow.
Steven on 09.15.06 @ 09:38 AM PST [link]

Colorful Aspen Leaves, Eastern Sierra, Ca
Steven on 09.15.06 @ 09:32 AM PST [link]

Bishop Creek Canyon, Eastern Sierra, Ca
Steven on 09.01.06 @ 07:27 PM PST [link]