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.