Clouds over Mount Ritter from Lake Ediza Outlet

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Ansel Adams Wilderness, Inyo National Forest, Madera County
early morning Friday July 5, 2002, slide 02P1-1
Pentax 67 AEII, 55-100mm zoom, Benbo Trekker
Drum scanned Fuji Provia 100F 220 film to 200mb RGB file
Adobe Photoshop 6.0 processed for accurate image fidelity
Lightjet5000 printed on Fuji Crystal Archive paper
signature above bottom mid right

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Instead of watching evening fireworks in Mammoth Lakes on the Fourth of July 2002 I said good-bye to a friend there to begin a backpack late in the afternoon from the Devils Postpile road at Agnew Meadows up towards Lake Ediza in Ansel Adams Wilderness. At sunset after a fast sweaty pace at the end of that warm day, I arrived about 4.5 miles along at the Ediza trail junction with the John Muir Trail beside Shadow Creek. Of course over the holiday, tents from backpackers occupied spots all along the big creek that was full of early summer snowmelt. In the darkening shadows, I quickly tented and then to escape sticky sweat and trail dust for my nightly comfort, jumped into the icy creek. Upon rising a mob of hungry mosquitoes immediately were thinking dinner so I ran up the hill to dash back into the safety of my tent. There I proceeded to dry off, make dinner, and get inside my down cocoon.

The next morning I escaped at dawn in order to quickly hike the mile and a half remaining to the lake. The east rising sun would soon illuminate the upper walls of this east west trending canyon of the Ritter Range and I didn't want to miss fine early light. One of the most important tasks of a landscape photographer is planning to be at the right place at the right time. On this morning, as I was approaching the lake, a fine set of clouds began crossing the ridge which made me pick up the pace. I arrived here at the outlet of Ediza Lake, quickly composed this foreground, and then took a quick series of images as the clouds rapidly moved eastward. This was the second image.

Mount Ritter at 13,142 feet is the highest peak this far north in the Sierra. It is spectacular from all directions, particularly from Ediza. Small glaciers fill shadowy exposures on its flanks while on this date the previous winter's snowfields still had much melting to do. The rock here is Jurassic Period metavolcanic which is metamorphosized volcanic sediments that have over long geologic time been compressed by miles of overlying sediments as well as heated from being deep in the earth.

This changes the original volcanic mineral composition to a harder, denser finer grained rock which here is multi-hued greens and grays. During the several ice ages, the last just 10,000 years ago, the area was deep beneath an enormous ice field that has smoothed outcrops of monolithic rock including the light green rock in this foreground.

Lake Ediza is a modest sized lake at 9,265 feet with near views of the magnificent Minarets as well as Mount Ritter and Banner Peak. As such it gets a heavy amount of visits by both backpackers and hikers. The lake is at the headwaters of Shadow Creek that is tributary to the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River. Actually more water flows down this branch than the main river out of nearby Garnet and Thousand Island Lakes. A small heavily fished population of eastern brook trout inhabit its waters.

Along the near shore are mountain hemlock, tsuga mertensiana, which have been pruned short by winter avalanches coming down from steep slopes right of the frame. The tallest branch of one tree is bare from no doubt sticking out above the deep winter snowpack and being scoured by storm gales racing across the flat lake surface. Also one can see a number of logs and branches at the edge of the forest across the lake which avalanches have kept free of trees. That forest is a mix of hemlock and whitebark pine, pinus albicaulis. Scattered in that talus near the lake edge are water loving willow, salix. The purple-red flowers in front of the near hemlock are red mountain heather, phyllodoce brewerii, which bloom early after snows melt. Behind the heather as well as a patch in the willow across the lake are the bushy blue elderberry, sambucus mexican. Between the near rocks and grass are yellow eriogonum.

Crop at 100% print size:

   David Senesac
   email: sales@davidsenesac.com

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