Devil's Postpile

First I am going to give the Devil's Postpile website for all the information needed.

Ok, here is a section at the top of the postpile.  The posts themselves where created because the pool of basalt was able to cool uniformly and this section was ground smooth because of glaciers.

Once coming down from the top one can see stubs of piles that have been deformed.  These are past the main section of posts.

Now we get into the iconic pictures of the postpiles themselves.  In the foreground you will see broken posts, these are the ones that have fallen due to weathering or man.  And yes this area may not have been here since a construction company had bought the land and wanted to use the postpiles for fill for a dam.  (Also you will see on one of the plagues at the start of the postpile of guys pulling a post down.)

This is a closeup of some of the rubble.

Rocks that bend.  Or that where bent.

The next three are more of the iconic pictures.  Overall rather impressive in the formation and structure.

Mono Lake area night shots

I would love to get out more to do this and my errors prove it.  Here are two shots from Mono Lake of the Milky Way.  I would have loved to venture to the Tufa's area and got them into the picture but I forgot my jacket and more important a flashlight.  I ended up using my iPhone for a light and it only had 20% battery.  (Yes inexperience lead to unprepared.  I guess the worst part was those things where in my large camera bag, just not the travel one that I brought with me.)

Both of these are from the South Tufa parking area looking South, thus Mono Lake is at my back.

Here was a quick shot from the Mammoth Lake vista point.  I wanted to do some testing and here was close since we where staying in Mammoth Lake.  (Also I normally do not get spooked but this place was spooky.)

This last one is interesting and I did not really think it would come out very well since the night was young and I had just pulled off of Hwy 395 toward Convict Lake across from the Mammoth Lake/Yosemite airport.

We where heading back from Mono Lake and it was getting toward evening and I wanted to show my wife and daughter what I do for the night shots.  They have seen the pictures but I wanted them to see the sky also.

My daughters first reaction was 'this is cool' and her, her friend and my wife all watches as the Milky Way got brighter.  Thus I figured I should just grab my tripod and shot a couple of pictures to give them a reference to what my pictures show and what they have seen.

Well I had to crop foreground out since it was blown out because the airport beacon would blast the area every few seconds with light, remember the airport is at my back.  Anyway, when we go back, I'll have to take the road further to Convict Lake to get out of the light.

So this was a special picture and I think I even caught a couple of meteors in it.

Misc pictures from Mono Lake area

Here area a few miscellaneous pictures from the Mono Lake area.

First off is June Lake.  This was one of the few beaches in the area.  (Locals probably know the more secluded sites, like the hot springs, but this one is nice.)  There is a very large shallow area, thus perfect for kids.  Plus a sloping rock that works as a slide.

This 'fault' is near the ski lodge in Mammoth Lake.  I took a picture of the informational plaque so I can remember about the site.  It is amazing how rock can be pulled apart.

This is the official hot springs.  This one is dangerous and run by the park service.  There is another hot springs which we learned about where you can actually sit in it.  Just be careful.  (One has to find a local to find it.)

On our visit to the Devil's Postpile/Red Meadow, we noticed that a lot of trees where down.  It seems the area was hit a couple of years back with high winds.  Here is a picture of tree vs picnic table.  Even a heavy duty picnic table was no match.

Mono Lake area Panoramic's

Here are a few panoramic shots from our week in the Mono Lake area.

First, is the far side of Yosemite off from Tioga pass.  The panoramic really makes half dome look small.  This shot and the one following where both created with Hugin in which I stitched together many images.  The top picture is 8 pictures and the second one is 12.

This panoramic is from the Northern vista point on Hwy 395 overlooking Mono Lake.  This was on our way back from visiting the ghost town of Bodie.

This last panoramic was taken from the vista point on the way to the Bristle Cone forest in Inyo.  This is almost 180 degrees from side to side and was taken with my iPhone 5s.  (I have a set of pictures to process via Hugin for this shot also but have not found the disk space to process them.  Laptops are fun that way.)

There where so many places where big vistas could be shot, I have a couple more sequences but would have loved to get more.  There where many areas on 395 between Mammoth Lakes and Bishop.  This is not counting the big views along some of the side roads trying to get to places like the Bodie ghost town or the Bristle Cone forest.

Bristle Cone Pines

Here is one place that I really wanted to get to.  It was a bit of a drive.  The staff here where fantastic, not only did they answer all our questions, they even humored us when we asked some silly ones.

One thing that is interesting about these trees is that if they where not growing where they are, in such a harsh environment, they would not have lived as long as they do.  It seems the harsh environment also contributes to their age by limiting or eliminating pests, fires and other destructive forces on the trees.  The trees have adapted to the lack of water, alkali soil, high winds that sand blasts the trees with ice crystals and sand, which is why they loose their bark and looks to be the main reason they die.

This first picture is of a young Bristle cone and was in the parking area.  Age was probably several hundred years old.

This is the first plaque on the short loop from the visitor center.  I think it sums up the whole experience pretty well.  You realize that the tree in front of this plaque had died in 1676 at the age of 3200 years.  Meaning this tree died 100 years before the US was born.

I took this picture of the tree rings from of the above mentioned tree.  The second picture is zoomed into the center area to show how dense the rings are.

The following are pictures of different trees.  The cloud started to make a bit of a showing, thus providing some contrast for the sky.  The one thing that should be noted is the white/tan/brown smooth areas are dead parts of the tree.  Some of these trees look to be completely dead but you could find a strip of bark running from a root up to a little tuff of green, thus that tree is alive.  From talking with the rangers and reading about the tree, that tuff of green is as fertile and vibrant as any young tree is.  Meaning that the cone produced have the same chance of growing a new tree and young cones.  (These trees do not suffer from aging, their cells do not deteriorate like most other living organisms.)