The Road To The Patriarchs
A few weeks ago I suggested to my shooting buddy Eric that we head off toward the Eastern Sierras to grab some shots since the light looked like it might be good up that way. After kicking around some ideas (Alabama Hills was forecast to be in the low 100's = bad idea) we decided to head somewhere a bit cooler and settled on the White Mountains. When we arrived, we were pleased to see that the road past Shulman Grove was now open. Eric was driving his Rav 4 and I was able to do a bit of scouting on my way up. I was originally looking for ancient Bristlecone Pines since that is the primary reason that anyone would be driving on this little dirt road in the middle of nowhere, but as we came around a corner, something caught my eye.
"Is that where we're going?" I asked, pointing up at the tiny goat path of a road that seemed to wind it's way over a ridge into oblivion. "Yep. And that's nothing. Wait until we get into the Patriarch Grove. That's where the road REALLY gets bad." he replied.
Soon I found myself fascinated by the road almost as much as the 3000 year old trees we were driving past. It wound its way across 11,000 foot peaks carelessly, assuming whatever vehicle you were driving would make it up there. This particular section jumped out at me. Something about the way that the road threaded itself over the ridge reminded me, not surprisingly, of something out of Lord Of The Rings. It had a sort of cinematic, story book feel to it.
So fast forward to last Friday night. It's 7 PM and I suddenly see that Skyfire, Sunsetwx, and Ventusky are all pointing to a strong sunrise for Saturday morning East of Bishop and some sunset light later that night. Four hours later, I had re-installed the rooftop tent on the FJ and was bouncing my way up the 395 toward the Owens Valley. I pulled an all nighter, stopping for a couple of quick naps, and arrived in the White Mountains at 4:30 AM. Later that night, as they sky was still forecast to light up, I returned and climbed the ridge behind the road and found myself with a panoramic view of the Eastern Sierras with the lights from Bishop twinkling several thousand feet below me. Unbelievably, the sunset light stuck around and I spent a solid hour up there shooting in all directions. I grabbed this shot just before the sun dropped behind Mammoth Mountain in the distance.
I quickly became enamored by this area and made quite a few trips up and down the road between the Schulman and Patriarch Groves over the following two weekends after my trip up with Eric. The views of the Eastern Sierras are simply jaw dropping, and on wet years, like this one, the green hillsides and valleys in the White Mountains look almost European, and those ancient, twisted, Ent looking trees are everywhere.
The bummer is that this area, like Glacier Point and Tioga Pass over to the West, is only open a few months out of the year. The last stretch of road out to the Patriarch Grove just opened last week and unlike Yosemite, not much work is done on this road to prepare it for the Summer. They just wait for that massive amount of snow melt each year. In any case, I hope to get at least one more trip in this year before the gates close. My next chance to shoot will most likely be next July. And in case you are wondering...I will most definitely be back.
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Thank you so much for your views and comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following:
The Road To The Patriarchs
A few weeks ago I suggested to my shooting buddy Eric that we head off toward the Eastern Sierras to grab some shots since the light looked like it might be good up that way. After kicking around some ideas (Alabama Hills was forecast to be in the low 100's = bad idea) we decided to head somewhere a bit cooler and settled on the White Mountains. When we arrived, we were pleased to see that the road past Shulman Grove was now open. Eric was driving his Rav 4 and I was able to do a bit of scouting on my way up. I was originally looking for ancient Bristlecone Pines since that is the primary reason that anyone would be driving on this little dirt road in the middle of nowhere, but as we came around a corner, something caught my eye.
"Is that where we're going?" I asked, pointing up at the tiny goat path of a road that seemed to wind it's way over a ridge into oblivion. "Yep. And that's nothing. Wait until we get into the Patriarch Grove. That's where the road REALLY gets bad." he replied.
Soon I found myself fascinated by the road almost as much as the 3000 year old trees we were driving past. It wound its way across 11,000 foot peaks carelessly, assuming whatever vehicle you were driving would make it up there. This particular section jumped out at me. Something about the way that the road threaded itself over the ridge reminded me, not surprisingly, of something out of Lord Of The Rings. It had a sort of cinematic, story book feel to it.
So fast forward to last Friday night. It's 7 PM and I suddenly see that Skyfire, Sunsetwx, and Ventusky are all pointing to a strong sunrise for Saturday morning East of Bishop and some sunset light later that night. Four hours later, I had re-installed the rooftop tent on the FJ and was bouncing my way up the 395 toward the Owens Valley. I pulled an all nighter, stopping for a couple of quick naps, and arrived in the White Mountains at 4:30 AM. Later that night, as they sky was still forecast to light up, I returned and climbed the ridge behind the road and found myself with a panoramic view of the Eastern Sierras with the lights from Bishop twinkling several thousand feet below me. Unbelievably, the sunset light stuck around and I spent a solid hour up there shooting in all directions. I grabbed this shot just before the sun dropped behind Mammoth Mountain in the distance.
I quickly became enamored by this area and made quite a few trips up and down the road between the Schulman and Patriarch Groves over the following two weekends after my trip up with Eric. The views of the Eastern Sierras are simply jaw dropping, and on wet years, like this one, the green hillsides and valleys in the White Mountains look almost European, and those ancient, twisted, Ent looking trees are everywhere.
The bummer is that this area, like Glacier Point and Tioga Pass over to the West, is only open a few months out of the year. The last stretch of road out to the Patriarch Grove just opened last week and unlike Yosemite, not much work is done on this road to prepare it for the Summer. They just wait for that massive amount of snow melt each year. In any case, I hope to get at least one more trip in this year before the gates close. My next chance to shoot will most likely be next July. And in case you are wondering...I will most definitely be back.
--------------
Thank you so much for your views and comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following: