Spring Wildflowers near Bishop, CA

[JerryP]

I saw some FB pictures from the Owens Valley showing some wonderful blue Iris fields that were in full bloom last week. It's looking like time to take the drive North. Is anyone in the Eastern Sierra area that can verify this?. Anyway, I'm heading North on this Thursday the 5th (on Cinco de Mayo).

[JerryP]

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This was taken on 4/29/16 by Laura Molnar

[Drew Wiley]

That's definitely Mt Humphreys in the background. But the general area from that persepctive is quite dry and sagebrushy, so it must be in the vicinity of the main irrigation ditch well east of Bishop. I can't remember the name of the little road, but there is some conspicuous pasture and some cottonwoods out there too.
Wild iris is kinda unusual for that area, to say the least; so it is probably confined to a handful of bogs. There is a fair amount of it out on the coast here at the moment.

[matthew blais]

There's a group up in Alabama Hills this weekend you might want to hook up with. Good guys and Lady Laura..
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?129682-LF-Gathering-Alabama-Hills-CA-May-6-7-2016

[JerryP]

That's definitely Mt Humphreys in the background. But the general area from that persepctive is quite dry and sagebrushy, so it must be in the vicinity of the main irrigation ditch well east of Bishop. I can't remember the name of the little road, but there is some conspicuous pasture and some cottonwoods out there too.
Wild iris is kinda unusual for that area, to say the least; so it is probably confined to a handful of bogs. There is a fair amount of it out on the coast here at the moment.

On her FB page Ms Molnar says it was near the Brockman area, I presume near 395, sort of NW of town.

[JerryP]

There's a group up in Alabama Hills this weekend you might want to hook up with. Good guys and Lady Laura..
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?129682-LF-Gathering-Alabama-Hills-CA-May-6-7-2016

Thanks. What a coincidence. I wanted to go to their campout last year but couldn't get it together. I will check them out.

[Drew Wiley]

The Buttermilk hills look distant, though it's certainly possible this is due to a wide angle lens. If so, there are some wet areas on the west side of 395 as one
heads a bit north towards Rovana. It's a lovely area, which survived a near miss catastrophe with LA-style burb development after the locals raised hell. I wouldn't make a fuss about exact photographic opportunities, since one should cruise around a bit anyway. There are some nice vantage points which the main highway misses. Hard to say how far up the road uphill due west of Bishop you can get at the moment, but it's typically plowed as far as Aspendell. Also, there are some old road sections headed south toward Independence, to the west of 395, that are very interesting. If you stop at Big Pine, you can still see the little Victorian church where my mother's uncle was circuit preacher in the late 1800's. I inherited the old albumen prints and cyanotypes of that little town just beginning its construction. Mary Austin's house is just up the street from that, and is preserved as a museum, in memoriam of the infamous water war with LA.

[Drew Wiley]

Just checked a map. Millpond is a watery public access park along McGee Creek just up the road from the Brockman neighborhood, so it could be around there somewhere, but the same road branches right up Pleasant Valley toward Rovana. Everything just minutes apart. So just cruise around a bit, like I already said.

[JerryP]

There's a group up in Alabama Hills this weekend you might want to hook up with. Good guys and Lady Laura..
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?129682-LF-Gathering-Alabama-Hills-CA-May-6-7-2016

Gentlemen and ladies:
I've never been to one of your Owens Valley outings and this year we may just pass each other as I'm leaving Orange County tomorrow AM 5/5/16 for Bishop for the wildflowers. I'll either stop by on Thursday on the way up or on Monday heading South, if that's ok. I'm bringing my 4x5 Crown Graphic, 10 sheets of Velvia 50, a few sheets of Shanghai and a box of Fomapan 100 (aka Freestyle). If I run out of Velvia, I might come by a bit earlier, but 10 sheets can last me a while. Anyway, hope to meet you people soon.

[JerryP]

Just checked a map. Millpond is a watery public access park along McGee Creek just up the road from the Brockman neighborhood, so it could be around there somewhere, but the same road branches right up Pleasant Valley toward Rovana. Everything just minutes apart. So just cruise around a bit, like I already said.

I was thinking this vantage point might be on the Reservation near Brockman off 395, but cruise around I will. I lived in Bishop for a few years in the late 70's and my first trip back there in over 30 years was last fall. The changes I saw then were mostly good changes.

[Michael Clark]

Jerry, I had planned to be there Thursday evening after stopping off in Apple Valley to take my Mom out for breakfast along the way and continue on from there. So maybe we will pass each other on the freeway or something.


Mike

[Drew Wiley]

It's the sight of Mt Humphrey's, Mt Emerson, etc, that makes me homesick. I lived on the opposite side of the range, due west, but have hiked to the crest from
both direction, and all through that backcountry. I've looked down on Bishop from atop many a high perch up there. Paiute Pass was the standard route for Indians heading toward Hot Creek to obtain obsidian cobbles. But my favorite shortcut was Lamarck Col, a bit up there at well over 13,000, but unforgettable.

[JerryP]

Jerry, I had planned to be there Thursday evening after stopping off in Apple Valley to take my Mom out for breakfast along the way and continue on from there. So maybe we will pass each other on the freeway or something.


Mike

Well, I'm leaving tomorrow AM and should be near Lone Pine in the afternoon (I'm kind of a slow driver). Who knows?

[Denny]

But my favorite shortcut was Lamarck Col, a bit up there at well over 13,000, but unforgettable.

Drew, that's one of my favorites as well. The view down Darwin Canyon is outstanding. It's sure a lot of work though. My all-time fave might be Knapsack Pass from Dusy Basin over to the Palisades.

[Drew Wiley]

I did the Knapsack/Thunderbot Pass loop one day when crystal clear water ice completely encased wildflowers etc, just as if they had clear plastic poured over them. It was a bitch climbing up the chute; but I had my ice axe along, and the Sinar shots were surreal. Then I got a very unique edge-on shot of North Palisade and Starlight Peak from right in a tiny wedge at the bottom of that sheer face of Thunderbolt Peak. The last night I spent in Dusy Basin was during a soft Oct snowfall. The coyotes had gathered on a knoll above me, and their chorus bounced off all those sheer faces, echoing about six times. I sure miss my teenage years, back in my 40's and 50's. No Sinar this summer. Two weeks with the Ebony instead.

[MikeH]

I think Hwy 168 west out of Bishop is plowed all the way to Lake Sabrina, since last weekend was the fishing opener. Looking at the Lake Sabrina website, there's plenty of snow, but, somehow, those fishermen drove their vehicles all the way up:

http://www.lakesabrinaboatlanding.com/this_week%27s_report/this_week%27s_report.html
http://www.lakesabrinaboatlanding.com/default.html

[Drew Wiley]

Access could change anytime due to recent snow. But since it's a utility dam, they do attempt to keep the road open even in winter. Some of my climber pals have driven there even in December for winter climbs of Mt Darwin. Sabrina would be lovely at the moment with snow over the peaks, at least the ledges of the peaks - there are some pretty steep ones back there! Gosh - there are few places in the Sierra more beautiful for "quickie" backpacks than Sabrina Basin. But it's distinctly early for that kind of activity, so if you plan on shooting from the dam, you'll probably want a longish lens to home in on the peaks in the background.
Mt Lamarck has the most distinct shape from that perspective. Once you get up in the Basin, appropriately-named Picture Peak and Clyde Spires are nearby classics.

[Drew Wiley]

It can close anytime, believe me; or chains can be required ANYTIME. I grew up very close to Hwy 168 on the west side of the range, where there is a ski resort
up the hill. They can even stop you at the bottom of the first grade. I once staggered out of that backcountry up there where my toothpaste froze solid in the middle of my pack under a noon blue sky in mid-August. Then it snowed so hard that Hwy 395 itself was officially closed just north of Bishop. These are mountains. I've been in serious blizzards in the Sierra every month of the year except July. One time I was heading back down from Pine Cr Pass above Rovana, down the switchbacks on the cliff, with the crest itself hidden by a plateau section up around 10,000 ft. These LA types were getting out of their cars at the hot
trailhead, amidst beavertail cacti, wearing shorts and T-shirts, with cute little REI packs. A horse packer went past them, with everything including himself all bundled with plastic. They stand there scratching their heads, looking up. Not a cloud in sight. Then as I slowly approach they all start laughing, seeing me all
geared to the hilt in sunshine. Then almost to the truck, they suddenly notice the two inches or so of fresh snow still atop my pack.

[JerryP]

It can close anytime, believe me; or chains can be required ANYTIME. I grew up very close to Hwy 168 on the west side of the range, where there is a ski resort
up the hill. They can even stop you at the bottom of the first grade. I once staggered out of that backcountry up there where my toothpaste froze solid in the middle of my pack under a noon blue sky in mid-August. Then it snowed so hard that Hwy 395 itself was officially closed just north of Bishop. These are mountains. I've been in serious blizzards in the Sierra every month of the year except July. One time I was heading back down from Pine Cr Pass above Rovana, down the switchbacks on the cliff, with the crest itself hidden by a plateau section up around 10,000 ft. These LA types were getting out of their cars at the hot
trailhead, amidst beavertail cacti, wearing shorts and T-shirts, with cute little REI packs. A horse packer went past them, with everything including himself all bundled with plastic. They stand there scratching their heads, looking up. Not a cloud in sight. Then as I slowly approach they all start laughing, seeing me all
geared to the hilt in sunshine. Then almost to the truck, they suddenly notice the two inches or so of fresh snow still atop my pack.

With your stories, I could sit around a campfire for hours.

[Drew Wiley]

Thanks. But I'm nuthin'. I got to sit around campfires with old cowboys and miners who pioneered exploration of the backcountry. The most remarkable was an old Indian up the road, then bedridden, who recited his childhood stories of walking over Piute Pass barefoot with only a rabbitskin blanket to keep him warm. Part of a trading party to the East side. The Mono Indians in that area were never either exterminated or pacified like those in the Central Valley or further north in the Mother Lode. They were slowly assimilated. The locals had been up all kinds of peaks before the Sierra Club ever "officially" bagged them. And long, long before...
Yep, even atop Knapsack Pass I picked up an atlatl point. That's what they used millennia before the bow and arrow were invented. Couple years ago we stumbled up Colby Pass. It was a mess, though a trail crew had set up a temporary base camp down at the Kern-Kaweah River to do work later on. Can't imagine people climbing over all that sharp talus barefoot, long before a trail, or in moccasins. But it would have been an ideal vantage point to look for bighorn sheep in the valley below. So after I took a 4x5 panorama, I instinctively thought like one of those ancients, and ducked behind a rock I would have used as a windbreak. Sure enough, obsidian chips.

[JerryP]

Well, I finally got my chromes scanned and the Iris and Lupines look nice. The Iris shots are just outside Bishop, CA off Brockman Lane. The creek shot is at Division Creek, near Independence, CA.
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[JerryP]

Well, I finally got my chromes scanned and the Iris and Lupines look nice. The Iris shots are just outside Bishop, CA off Brockman Lane. The creek shot is at Division Creek, near Independence, CA.
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Forgot to mention, 4x5 Crown Graphic, Velvia 50, exposures were a couple of seconds with an ND and Polarizer.

[Drew Wiley]

Looks like your timing was fortuitous. Lots of snow on the hills and pleasant weather down below. Thanks for sharing the pics.