Tag: golden

Enchantment Lakes [6]

Day 2. Lake Viviane

After scrambling up the face of a rock for hours we were finally getting to the lower Enchantments. We were entering Enchantments at a mouth of a waterfall; greeted by a mountain goat.

Lake Viviane was the first of Enchantment Lakes that we got to from the Snow Lake trail. It was surrounded by steep drops of white and black granite walls. The water was incredibly clear. We were able to see very deep into the lake where a few fish lazily were moving around. The granite walls were sprinkled with bright golden larches. The sky was deep deep clear blue.

We, finally, took a long break, refilled water bottles, had some snack, rested and photographed. The greeter rested with us and took some nap.

Enchantment Lakes [5]

Day 2. Approaching Lower Enchantments

On our first day I still had energy to walk and there were still 2 hours till sunset but John and Josh decided to camp night out at Upper Snow Lake. The second day I learnt why.

The last mile of this hike was the toughest. It was pretty much continuous scramble up a face of a big rock. There were no flat spots big enough to setup a tent. Once we were there there were only two options: walk up or walk down. Even in day light it was easy to loose the trail, since in many cases there were no trail. At night it would be extremely hard to stay on it.

I was not used to go such steep trails. My muscles were sore from previous day hike. So, I was moving slowly, checking that my muscles would not give up on me before making each steep step. Loosing balance was not an option. It took us 3 or 4 hours to get to Lake Viviane. (In other words we would not make it before night fall the day before.)

As we climbed higher and higher we could see golden larches in the distance. Larches were glowing in sun light. Now they were not only above us; we left some below.

_MG_0230

The grand view of the whole valley we had been walking up so far was opening up to us.

_MG_0257

Enchantment Lakes [4]

Day 2. Sunrise at Snow Lake

We woke up to quite morning. First thing first: locate the camera that I left for the night to photograph star trails. Next onto photographing sunrise, breakfast could wait just a little bit.

It was freezing but no wind at all, absolute stillness. Good opportunity to photograph reflections in Snow Lake. The water level was incredibly low exposing steep banks of the lake that typically lay deep under water.

The textures created by sand and dust deposits brought here by water then dried up when the water level dropped were fascinating. We could see golden larches at higher elevations. They seemed so close.

The tops of the mountains were lit up pretty nicely. I wish there were some clouds too to add to the light show but the sky was as clear blue as it could be.

After photographing sunrise we made breakfast from freeze-dried bags. Once both our creativity and bodies were fed we packed up and moved out toward Enchantment Lakes.

Fog over Golden Bridge

I always wanted to photograph Golden Bridge and Presidio in fog but in many times I had been to San Francisco I had never seen fog over Golden Bridge. Other photographers seemed to get it every time. Not me.

This May on the way back from The Lost Coast we spent a couple of days in San Francisco. One morning Very early before sunrise I went to photograph hoping to get lucky and see that mythical fog. And lucky I was. The was fog. And not just in the morning. It was there whole day. In fact it caused our flight to be delayed in the evening.

The fog was different from the one I used to. I’m used to fog in still windless weather. Golden Bridge fog was combined with strong winds. It was constantly on the move, thickening and lightening, lifting off and dropping back to the ground, letting sun in or blocking it off all together, constantly reshaping landscape.

It presented me with new and constantly changing photo opportunities. I could not get enough of it. I was running from one place to another and then back. The only limit was time.