Fall Colors on the East Side Sierras

aspen grove, hope valley, california

In mid-October I took a trip up to the east side of the Sierras to see if I could capture a sense of the coming fall.  Fall is my favorite season, with rich afternoon light, cooler nights, and the changing colors of trees.  It can also bring interesting cloud patterns.  It was a short trip, but I was lucky, as there were some great cloud formations at sunset, along with some aspen showing their fall colors.

I love aspen, from the shimmering of their leaves in the breeze, to their changing colors as the seasons progress, from the greens of spring to the yellows and oranges of fall.  And their white bark is so distinct, reflecting light in the most subtle ways.  All in all I am enamored by aspen, but I have the hardest time getting good photographs of them.  Part of it is that they don’t grow alone, which would make it easy to isolate and capture an image of a single tree.  Instead, they grow in tightly spaced groves – a grove of aspen is often described as a single living organism, all connected by the same root system – making it hard to know where to begin and end the sides of an aspen grove image.  And those same delicate leaves move in the slightest of breezes, making it difficult to get sharp images.  (Their shimmering  leaves is what gives rise to their being referred to as “quaking” aspen.)  So, aesthetically, I love aspen trees, but they test me!   

I saw dozens of aspen groves on my trip, but most of them I could not frame in a way to get a good image. Ultimately I did get a few images of aspen. Here is an image I took from the edge of a mountain meadow early in the morning, while at the end of this post I have placed two more aspen images.

aspen grove no. 2, hope valley, california

The late afternoons-evenings I spent on the east side had some good clouds.  I went out before sunset to scout the clouds and set up in locations where I could juxtapose the clouds against mountains.  I got several images of dynamic clouds.  In many ways clouds strike me as similar to water.  They morph and twist, maybe not as quickly as the water in a breaking wave, but they are definitely ever-changing, reflecting light in interesting ways.  And that makes sense, because in essence clouds are just water, in the form of tiny ice / water droplets swirling in the sky. 

Here are some images of cloud formations from my trip. First, three images from the Hope Valley.

sunset, ridgeline, hope valley, california

cloud wave, hope valley, california

beethoven sunset, hope valley, california

Then, an image from the east side of the Sierras near Mono Lake.

      sunset no. 2, east side sierras near mono lake, california

And if we’re talking about clouds and weather on the east side, I should note how quickly the weather and seasons can change.   When I was in June Lake on my recent trip, the days were pleasant – about 70 degrees – and the nights were mild for mid-October, only down to about 50.  But two weeks later it was forecast to be snowing with low of 22.  I was lucky to catch it when I did!

Here I’m including a couple close-ups of aspen from the June Lake loop.  In these images I skipped trying to capture an entire grove of aspen, and instead focused on bringing the image in close, so that we see just part of the aspen trunks and leaves.  That provides an intimate view, hinting at the broader scene of changing leaves, while also highlighting the contrast between the colorful leaves against the soft white of aspen tree trunks. 

aspen grove, june lake loop, california 

aspen trunks, leaves, june lake loop, california 

Thank you for reading this blog and viewing my images!  I’ll close with a sunset image from the Hope Valley.

pink wave, sunset, hope valley, california