Leon Turnbull Photography

We just returned from a great three day camping trip to the Eastern Sierra Nevada region of California, to Devil’s Postpile at Mammoth Lakes. I’ve been wanting to go here for some years now, not to see this semi-half-interesting columnar basalt formation, but to see the fabulous waterfalls in this area. So this year, we were finally able to make a family trip out to the area to see them.

And of course, it would be a mighty shame not to attempt to photograph the actual Devil’s Postpile formation, since I am there already. This columnar basalt was created by a lava flow some many many years ago, and is certainly very striking in appearance. The distortion in the photo is intentional, but to be honest I spent very little time here photographing it. The mosquitoes were horrendous when I was here, a couple hours before sunset. I was swarmed upon as soon as I arrived. And frankly, I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. So it was a quick setup, click the shutter, and bye bye Devil’s Postpile.

I hate summer for two reasons: (1) the heat, and (2) the mosquitoes. I normally don’t do much hiking in the summer months for these reasons, unless it is somewhere with none of the little buggers around. Frankly, I was a bit surprised to say the least that there were mosquitoes at Devil’s Postpile. We were here the first weekend the Monument was open (it is closed over the winter because of the snow), and I did not expect any mosquitoes so early in June. There weren’t that many around really (except right here at the Postpile), but I can’t imagine what this place would be like later in the summer, or why anyone would want to come here at that time either. Eck.