High Sierra Topix

Have you tried talking to a NPS or NFS Chief Naturalist, sometimes you get lucky and
get to talk to someone who has been working in the park/forest a long time, and can
give you a lot of info, but the key here is getting lucky because a lot of times either the
person is new, or has no back country info at all, but it is worth a call.

Along Sharktooth Creek, heading into Iva Bell, is loaded with aspens - close to 3 miles of October-yellow canyon. You just have to walk about 9 miles south of Reds Meadow to get there though.

schmalz wrote:SSSDave - That is exactly what I was getting at. I'm aware that there are a ton of aspens that arent' being photographed. I don't have the benefit of decades of experience in the sierra, or having many days in the summer where I can get out there to "scout" for future trips. I came on this board hoping that some people would be kind enough to discuss some of their findings, although I do appreciate your candor about not wanting to share the secrets.

Finding aspen areas up western slope canyons may require considerable exploration efforts because groves are frequently not in view of trailheads. Besides my mentioned SF San Joaquin River area, Mono Creek above Edison Reservoir has areas. Better use of one's time would be to explore Eastern Sierra areas because one can see most of the groves from areas east often right on US395. Many of the pristine groves are on benches well above roads thus require day hiking. Important to have the Inyo and Toyabe NF maps and some 7.5d USGS topos. The maps will provide some idea of what kind of backdrop in peaks one might find, see where one can reach closest trailheads often on dirt 4wd roads, then crosscountry a route up to target. An example of one aspen zone that anyone can see from US395 that I've never seen any images from, are the talus groves below Mount Gibbs and the Dana Plateau. Just climbing up to those areas is only half the battle. One would need to explore about to find good perspectives to capture both aspens and the background peaks.

ssdave mentioned easier to access shots available along US 395 (I would have quoted him but I can't seem to figure out how to work this feature ).
Shots often utilized here by area photographers are those of Round Valley and the aspens there backed up by Wheeler Ridge, Mt. Tom, and the Bishop Creek Area.
Outstandingly pretty about now. Hilton Creek and Rock Creek are beginning to be right nice, too.

copeg wrote:Wonderful shot. I was wondering the same thing as you recently. Paradise Valley was the first (and only) to come to mind, so I'm glad you asked the question.

Haha, no that's not what I meant. I meant how I can get the entire picture to show up when I embedd it on this board.

The board has a max width of something like 550 (or was that 500) pixels, anything larger gets cut off so if you want the whole thing try posting a smaller width version.

Nope. That's why the "rimg" tag was added, to use rather than the "Img" tag. Resolves the issue. When in the post window, it's located between the "float=" and "sub" buttons above.

I've corrected the issue in the OP.