Leon Turnbull Photography

Fall Color and Waterfalls. That is what I like. That is what I want. The only trouble is, gorgeous fall color around waterfalls is hard to come by in California. Usually by this time of year, most waterfalls are dry or just a trickle, and I do not know of too many waterfalls that have fall color around them anyway.

I had heard from certain unnamed sources that the color was at peak on the west side of the Sierra Nevada, so I called my friend Rob and off we went at 5:30AM to Hope Valley. It is very late in the  year for Autumn colors here. Rob had figured he had already missed it by a few weeks. But not so. Indeed, we picked the perfect day to head up into the Sierra. Hope Valley was definitely at peak for color. Gorgeous Aspens in bright yellow and orange. It was perhaps the best I have ever seen it here.

I dropped Rob off at Sorensen’s Resort, as he did not want to shoot the waterfall. But I did. I was not sure if there was actually any color around this waterfall and along the river here, but when I arrived I could see that there was some. I have a lot of troubles shooting colorful Aspen trees if there is not any water. Finding a good, stellar composition of Aspen trees is extremely difficult (for me, anyway). But if there is water, I am good to go. Water is my thing. Colorful trees abounded along the West Fork Carson River, and with the recent storm of a couple weeks ago, we had a bonus. The waterfall was actually flowing. Sweetness! I made my way down to the base of the falls, hopping along rocks until I got into the middle of the river, and I found yellow Aspen goodness looking down on me from the top of the falls. I had my colorful waterfall shot after all.

The sun came up quickly but after shooting the waterfall I took a few more shots of the river further downstream, then I went back to find Rob. He was waiting patiently at the Resort for me, going stir crazy from the tempting smell of breakfast cooking. I told him we had to go on one quick hike before breakfast, which we did, though not finding anything worth mentioning on that hike, which meant I had to pay for breakfast since I dragged him on that semi-useless hike. But I was glad to pay. The food was good, though only lukewarm and the service was not so good.

Sorensens Resort has a lot of photo prints on display, many from a photographer named Tony Rowell, son of the late great Galen Rowell. The lady at the resort said his prints sell very well there, but I just kind of wonder about that. I was not too impressed with a lot of them, which were taken with boring cloudless skies. What is so great about that, I wonder? Is he just selling so many prints because of his name? And why do the ones that are so blah looking sell the best? Rob said that when he was at Elizabeth Carmel’s gallery in Truckee, and talking to one of the workers there, he was told the best selling of her prints he thought were just, again, blah and boring. Are we missing something here, Rob and I wondered? Why did the lady at Sorensens Resort look at us so strangely when we told her we were done photographing for the day as the light was now bad? Should we be photographing during the middle of the day when the light is so flat and harsh? Is that what people want to buy? Hmmm ….

Ah well, we sure did have a gorgeous and fantastic morning up at Hope Valley.