Leon Turnbull Photography

It seems that I have been waiting a long long time for Fall to arrive. Well, actually I have been! We had a very long summer here, the heat lasted into the beginning of October. It was crazy, and you know, I hate the hot weather. Well finally things have cooled down here in northern California, and finally the Autumn colors have arrived. It is going to be a very short Fall this year, I think, so I figured I should get out and enjoy it while it is here. So off to Lee Vining did I go on Saturday morning for my favorite Autumn hike: Lundy Canyon.

It is a very long drive over to the Eastern Sierra for just a day hike, but I figure I can manage doing it once or twice a year. I left the house at about 3AM, arriving at the trailhead at 6:30AM, and ready to start my hike up Lundy Canyon in peace. It was not quite as peaceful as I would have liked, however, because shockingly there was another couple starting the hike at about the same time.  I thought I was the only one crazy enough to get up so early for a hike. Not so, apparently. I noticed that they were photographers as well (which explains the craziness), and they caught up with me at the first waterfall.

The first waterfall was decked out in all its Fall glory, surrounded by gorgeous Aspen color. The flow in the creek was less than usual, though not surprising considering the awful winter we had this year. Nonetheless, it was flowing better than I expected it to be. There was still quite a bit of green showing at the lower elevations of Lundy Canyon, but at the same time there was a lot of yellow and orange also. I may have arrived here one week too early for best color, but at the higher elevations (above the second waterfall), most of the trees were already well past peak color.

After shooting from the overlook, I went on down to the base of the waterfall, looking for some more compositions of this lovely waterfall. I had never been to the base of it before, and it was quite easy with a trail leading down to it, but I couldn’t find a good comp that I liked with fall color down so close to the falls. Afterwards, I continued on up the canyon to the upper waterfalls. I thought about going all the way to the top of the monster waterfall, but I decided against it. There is a trail to the top, but it is very steep and a bit on the dangerous side, so instead I just looked for some new comps of that huge waterfall (which was not flowing too great anyway).

On the way back down the trail, I must have passed a hundred people hiking up the trail. It seemed like Fourth of July in Yosemite, with all the people out hiking, but I guess, for the Eastern Sierra, this is the most popular time of year for hiking. It sure seemed like a lot more than usual, however. Back in Lee Vining for lunch and to fill up with gas (at a whopping $5.09 per gallon – oh my!), then made the long drive back home. It was a long but great day in the Eastern Sierra.

Here’s another one from Lundy Canyon. This is a lovely triple falls, 85 ft. high in total. To get to this spot, I had to cross the creek above the first fall, then scramble down to this spot. There were a lot of wildflowers in bloom on this side, as you can see, but I couldn’t really get a good composition that I liked. I had to shoot from higher up to get the best view, and thus the wildflowers were further away than what I would have preferred. And it is too bad the creek doesn’t have a lot more flow in it as well. But it is still a very pretty scene for sure.

I believe this peak is called the Matterhorn, part of the Sawtooth Ridge in the Eastern Sierra. This ridge of mountains above Twin Lakes near Bridgeport is so very striking and interesting, and I was hoping to get some spectacular sunset colors above these peaks but that was not to be. However, I did get some nice dramatic evening clouds above this peak from the Horse Creek meadow, and I stopped to take advantage.

This is Upper Horse Creek Falls, 82 ft. high. It is a very pretty waterfall. I was a bit shocked to see all the yellow bushes around the base of the falls. You might think this shot was taken in October. But this is the end of August, and they are changing color already? The Aspens are still very green, but I’m not sure why the other bushes are yellow yet (I know they are not yellow all year). Anyway, I think this might be a very pretty scenic waterfall to shoot when the Aspens are changing as well.

After shooting Lundy Canyon in the morning, I drove into Lee Vining, had lunch, and then took a nap in the afternoon. My original plan was to shoot sunset at Mono Lake, sleep overnight in my vehicle somewhere, then get up in the morning to do another hike. However … the entire area was covered in heavy stormy clouds, it was starting to rain, and it sure did not look like there would be much of a sunset at Mono Lake. I thought to myself, well what should I do? I could stick around and hope the skies clear for sunset. It was a possibility. But there was another option. I could just skip Mono Lake, do my other hike in the afternoon, and drive home that same night. I was very tired from my morning hike in Lundy Canyon, and was not sure I could do another high elevation 4 mile hike. But the nap refreshed me and gave me energy back. Plus, I didn’t really want to stay the night in Lee Vining anyway. I would be kicking myself if there ended up being a spectacular sunset at Mono Lake, but I decided on Plan B. (as it turned out, the clouds seemed to get worse by sunset, and I don’t think there was much of a sunset at Mono Lake that evening – whew).

So I drove up to Twin Lakes at Bridgeport and started hiking up to Horse Creek Falls. The hike gains 1100 ft. of elevation in 2 miles, but the grade was very gentle and easy going. I felt very good and had no troubles with the hike. I noticed that there are tons of deer around Twin Lakes. In fact, I think I saw more deer on this day, then I have in the past 3 years total. I think the campers feed them (which is not very smart), as I saw one person hand feeding one deer, and another one I saw on the trail walked right up to me (looking for a handout, I guess). It was quite tame but I had no handout for her, so continued on past. There are two waterfalls on Horse Creek. The first one is a big one, and I think most people do not even realize it is here, or how big it is anyway. The trail comes to the bottom of the cascade, then switches back well away from the creek, and comes back to it at the top of the waterfall. The total height of the waterfall is about 360 feet. But from the trail, you can only see the bottom part of it, and when the creek flow is low, it does not look very impressive. In the spring it would look a lot more interesting. On my way back down, I hiked right alongside of it from the top to the bottom (off the main trail), and I found some good spots to photograph it. It is definitely a fabulous cascade.

Upper Horse Creek Falls is 82 ft. high, and is a much prettier waterfall and the trail goes right beside it (and thus, I think more people stop here to look at this one). This one looks nicer when the flow is lower as well, as it comes down in many small rivulets. It is a beautiful hike, I think I’ll definitely be back here someday.

This past weekend I made a very quick and very long trip over to the Eastern Sierra. The weather had significantly cooled, and storms were on the forecast for the Sierras. It was my kind of day, and I was ready for some hiking. Especially since it would likely be my last hike for the summer, with minor surgery scheduled for the next week, and recovery time needed afterwards.

So with absolutely zero sleep (I can never sleep the night before I am trying to get up early), I got up at 2AM and headed out on the long drive over to Lee Vining. While driving over Monitor Pass, I was greeted by a pack of coyotes along the road. I do not think I have ever seen a pack of coyotes before. I always see them only one at a time. They were rather curious, and watched me from the side of the road as I drove slowly by them. So this was definitely kinda neat, and I took it as a good omen for the day (whether it was or not, is another question). There were about 7 or 8 of them, and they all seemed to be rather small. (unlike the huge one my wife and I saw once on Ice House Road – that one was as big as a wolf). Perhaps these ones were just pups, but if so, I didn’t see mom or dad.

My plan for the day was variable. If it looked like it would be a spectacular sunrise, I was going to Mono Lake. I arrived in the area well before sunrise, and although there were some clouds over Mono Lake, it definitely was not going to be spectacular. So I headed up Lee Vining Creek to the powerhouse at the end of the road. There is supposed to be a trail from here going up the canyon to a waterfall. Well, I could find no such trail. I looked and looked, and wasted a lot of time trying to find it. The powerhouse area is closed to the public, and I could not find a way around it. Well as it turned out, the creek was not flowing very well above the powerhouse anyway, so the waterfall would be just trickling. My next destination of the day was Lundy Canyon.

It was of course well after sunrise by the time I got to Lundy Canyon. But the light was off and on all morning. There were plenty of clouds and they were moving in and out from in front of the sun, so although the light was bad at times, I just had to wait a few minutes and it would be cloudy again. I was hoping it would be a lot more overcast, but this was all right. I took a lot of photos in Lundy Canyon and this one was my favourite of the day. There are 6 significant waterfalls along Lundy Canyon Creek (including a 500+ footer). This one (30 ft.) is the smallest, but it is also arguably the prettiest. The 500 footer was pretty spectacular as well. This was the main reason I wanted to go back into Lundy Canyon as I had not been to the big waterfall before, but it was a bit difficult to photograph (it is posted on my main website). Anyway, it was quite a tough hike up Lundy Canyon, and I was quite tired afterwards (especially from the high elevation), but it was certainly a fabulous morning in the Eastern Sierra.