Leon Turnbull Photography

It is difficult to plan in advance a get-away weekend to the Eastern Sierra in the Fall because you don’t really know when the Fall colors will peak. Especially if you are coming from Australia.

Such was the case for us this year. My friend Neal from Aussieland was making his annual trip to California this fall, and we were joined by his friend Luke, and my family as well. Neal was really wanting to see some great Fall colors in the Eastern Sierra this year. but it has not been a good year for Fall Colors in the west (not just California, all over the western U.S. has been bad this year). The Aspen trees have been very slow to turn this year, and some just did not turn from green at all. Perhaps it is due to the drought we’ve had the last 2 years? or the very hot September we had? or an early freeze? or all of the above? I don’t know the reason, but I do know it is a sub-par year for Fall Color in California.

Of course we didn’t know that when we made plans in September to spend an October weekend in Lee Vining. Another thing we didn’t know (of course) is what the weather would be like. And unfortunately, the weather did not co-operate fully.

We did not even bother going to photograph Mono Lake. There were no clouds in the sky pretty much all weekend. Though I do not have a good photo of Mono Lake, and I do indeed want one in my portfolio, but there needs to be good cloud and light, or it is just not worth it to me. (especially when Mono Lake would be jam packed with photographers at sunrise and sunset all weekend).

Neal felt the same way about Mono Lake, so we avoided it like the plague all weekend. Instead, we went to other spots to photograph Fall Colors, and in fact, I think we came away with quite a few dandy photographs. I was pleased overall with the amount of good shots I obtained, and we were able to avoid crowds for most of the weekend.

The first stop that Neal wanted to make was Lee Vining Creek and the cascades that are on this creek. There are a couple small waterfalls on Lee Vining Creek, and I was very surprised at how well they were flowing this late in the year. The canyon gets no sun late in the afternoon either, so the shade made for some good photograph possibilities for the waterfalls.

This is the first waterfall we went to, called Aspen Falls. In order to make this photo, I climbed out on a big log in the middle of the creek, then tried to set up my tripod in a sturdy position to take the photo. I’m not sure what Neal and Luke were thinking about my crazy antics, but I think my family was wondering if I’d be falling off that log into the creek. As it turned out over the course of the weekend, I realized Luke was probably more insane than myself; Neal was probably the only sane person out of the three of us.

Here’s another shot from my beautiful evening at Wrigh’s Lake. Same composition, but this was taken about 30 minutes or so before my previous image. The only thing that would make this better would be if those trees around the lake were brightly colored Aspen trees instead. Oh well.

Speaking of Aspen trees, we spent this past weekend searching for Fall colors at Lee Vining in the Eastern Sierra, and I came away with a number of good images from the trip. I was quite pleased even though the Fall colors this year have been hugely below par for California standards. I’ll have plenty of posts to share in the coming days. Stay tuned.

With my family still out of town on their annual pilgrimage to the coast, leaving me home alone by myself all week, I (of course) wanted to get out and do some photography while they were away. After work on Monday, I decided to head up into the hills, to Wrights Lake. When I was here last year, I thought it might be a good place to come for sunset when there is snow on the mountains. We had our first snow fall of the year on Sunday, and I was hoping fresh snow along with some pretty clouds would make for a fabulous sunset. It was really just a light dusting of snow, however, and I was hoping for a bit more. As for the clouds, there were quite a few, and I thought when I first arrived that there were too many, and sunset would be a dud. But as sunset time approached, some of the clouds dissipated and it turned out to be an incredibly sweet sunset. The mountains turned incredibly bright red in color, and I had this amazing scene all to myself.

Well not quite all to myself, actually. I shared it with a friendly little visitor, named Daisy … Daisy Duck, that is. As I was waiting around for sunset, a little duck splashed right up beside me by the dock at Wrights Lake, and it swam around near to me without a care in the world that I was there. I changed lenses and took some shots, one of which is below. She was quite the funny little duck. As sunset approached, just before I took the above shot, the duck started to swim out into the middle of the lake, and was ruining the nice reflection. I called the duck back, just like one would call a dog or cat. Here ducky ducky. Here Daisy. Come here girl. It worked. The duck came back to me, swimming right up to me within 2 feet of me. This happened 2 or 3 times. This is a popular lake in the summer, and I guess the duck is very used to seeing people. Still though, it was definitely an extremely friendly little thing. Finally, as the color from the sunset faded, the duck swam off into the middle of the lake, I said goodbye to my little friend, and turned to go back to my home. It was a glorious evening.

My little friend:

This is Split Falls, the second waterfall on Fordyce Creek (15 ft. high). Getting to this one requires a bit of an off-trail scramble, but it is not difficult. You can’t get right down to the creek level though, you are up on this overhanging ledge. I got myself and my camera out right to the edge to get this shot. Then it started raining. I just continued on shooting in the rain, though my dog, Kaya, was trying to prod me to finish up and start hiking back. She’s normally very patient with me while I photograph, but I guess she didn’t like the rain too much. Well, it stopped raining anyway after a few minutes, so our hike back wasn’t too wet after all.

What is this? A waterfall in California with spring time flows in late September? Impossible, you say? But ’tis so, my friends. This is Fordyce Creek, near Emigrant Gap, and it is flowing just dandy. But how can this be? A ha, well that is the question, isn’t it? Fordyce Creek is a controlled water way, and this month PG&E has been dumping water from the upstream dam at Fordyce Lake, in order to facilitate making repairs on the dam. Great news for kayakers and waterfall hunters. Normally, this creek would be just a trickle at this time of year. There are two small but decent waterfalls on Fordyce Creek. This one is called Fordyce Falls (brilliant name, eh?) and it is 13 ft. high. But a word of warning: if you are reading this and decide you want to go, you’d better do it quickly cuz PG&E will be turning off the tap very soon (it is already half the flow it was when I was there last week).
Now admittedly, the waterfalls on Fordyce Creek are really nothing to write home about (13 and 15 ft. high), and it is a fairly long hike to go see them. That’s probably why I hadn’t been to them before now, though I did make an attempt a couple years ago. Nonetheless, when I learned that PG&E was releasing water, I figured that this was the time, and I immediately made my plans to go.

Since it is a long hike, I wanted to start hiking in the dark, in order to be at the falls by sunrise. I figured it would be easy to find the trailhead in the dark since I had been there before. Not! I had remembered there being a sign along the road at the trailhead. I found no signs, except a “no trespassing” sign. Could this be the right place? It just did not seem right, but I could not tell in the dark, so I decided to wait around the for the light. Fortune (I mean, God) was with me, as it was an overcast day, and thus it did not matter if I made it to the falls by sunrise; the light would still be good for photography. When it did get light, I was able to find “a trail”, and it wasn’t at the no trespassing sign, but it still wasn’t how I remembered it at all, and I ended up trampling through the forest using my GPS to guide me, until I finally got on the correct path that I remembered.

When I was here a couple years ago with my dog, Kaya, PG&E at that time was letting out water at Fuller Lake. The trail proper crosses the outlet of Fuller Lake (at a waterfall), and thus I came to a dead end, as I was not able to cross that raging stream, or I couldn’t get Kaya across, or maybe both (it was quite awhile ago, and my memory is fading). This year, the outlet stream was dry and it was easy for Kaya and myself to continue on. I wonder if she remembered that hike before – not likely, I couldn’t even remember it.

The trail leads down from Fuller Lake to Spaulding Lake, and then follows that lake to the end, where Fordyce Creek dumps into it. I was relieved when I heard Fordyce Creek and that it was flowing well (I was worried they might have turned off the tap). The trail then continues up Fordyce Creek, but well away from the creek. This was not good. The trail wouldn’t even go near the waterfalls, and I would miss them. Eventually, though, the trail wound its way back to the creek at the base of the 2nd waterfall. It was easy to get down to the creek to photograph it, and it was flowing beautifully. To get to the other waterfall, I had to back track down the trail to a spot where I could scramble over to it. It was not difficult to do that (for myself or Kaya). All in all, it was a fabulous day, and I was happy to finally get out to see these falls.