August 4, 2021
Little Lakes Valley - There and Back
It's about a 300 mile drive up to the trailhead at Little Lakes Valley. Myself and the other photographers planned to meet at noon at a park on the north side of Lone Pine. While I've driven up to the Owens Valley quite a few times, I'd missed some interesting sights along the way, so this was an opportunity to photograph them. The first up was Uniroyal Gal in Pearsonville. Pearsonville is about 10 miles north of the 14/395 split near Ridgecrest. I've passed it many times and never had the time to stop, so I took this opportunity to stop and get some shots. Next up was the Sponge Bob house in Cartago at the southern end of the Owens Lake. Cartago was the western port on Owens Lake(back before we stole the water fair and square) for silver from the mines in the hills east of Owens Lake. The silver was then loaded on a train for transport to Los Angeles. One of the buildings used to be a beef jerky store and has a rather unusual shape and is painted bright yellow and has some interesting sculpture in front.
It was about 2am by the time we'd descended from Little Lakes Valley and back into Bishop. Half of the group continued down to Los Angeles, another photographer and I decided to sleep in our cars on BLM land in the Bishop Tuff north of Bishop. I awoke to see the sun shining off the tops of the eastern Sierra and got my camera out to shoot a scene similar to the shot of Mt. Whitney I'd shot a year to the day earlier in the Alabama Hills about 60 miles to the south. The clouds that had been an impediment to our Milky Way shots the night before became an added bonus to the sun's glow off the granite peaks. My colleague was in search of the Sky Rock petroglyphs and was flying his drone around to try to find them, I headed back to LA with a few stops along the way. My first stop was a small, semi-ghost town just to the northeast of Bishop called Laws. Laws was on of the old railway stations, much like Kearsarge, but has been fully restored and is now a museum. It wasn't open yet, so I took some exterior photos in the morning light. As I drove back to Los Angeles, I decided to make a stop at the old Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery just north of Independence. I'd seen photos of the really nice building there and the pool in front of it and wanted to try to see if I could get some shots with reflections.
Read MoreIt's about a 300 mile drive up to the trailhead at Little Lakes Valley. Myself and the other photographers planned to meet at noon at a park on the north side of Lone Pine. While I've driven up to the Owens Valley quite a few times, I'd missed some interesting sights along the way, so this was an opportunity to photograph them. The first up was Uniroyal Gal in Pearsonville. Pearsonville is about 10 miles north of the 14/395 split near Ridgecrest. I've passed it many times and never had the time to stop, so I took this opportunity to stop and get some shots. Next up was the Sponge Bob house in Cartago at the southern end of the Owens Lake. Cartago was the western port on Owens Lake(back before we stole the water fair and square) for silver from the mines in the hills east of Owens Lake. The silver was then loaded on a train for transport to Los Angeles. One of the buildings used to be a beef jerky store and has a rather unusual shape and is painted bright yellow and has some interesting sculpture in front.
It was about 2am by the time we'd descended from Little Lakes Valley and back into Bishop. Half of the group continued down to Los Angeles, another photographer and I decided to sleep in our cars on BLM land in the Bishop Tuff north of Bishop. I awoke to see the sun shining off the tops of the eastern Sierra and got my camera out to shoot a scene similar to the shot of Mt. Whitney I'd shot a year to the day earlier in the Alabama Hills about 60 miles to the south. The clouds that had been an impediment to our Milky Way shots the night before became an added bonus to the sun's glow off the granite peaks. My colleague was in search of the Sky Rock petroglyphs and was flying his drone around to try to find them, I headed back to LA with a few stops along the way. My first stop was a small, semi-ghost town just to the northeast of Bishop called Laws. Laws was on of the old railway stations, much like Kearsarge, but has been fully restored and is now a museum. It wasn't open yet, so I took some exterior photos in the morning light. As I drove back to Los Angeles, I decided to make a stop at the old Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery just north of Independence. I'd seen photos of the really nice building there and the pool in front of it and wanted to try to see if I could get some shots with reflections.
