CA 158 at Grant Lake, Mono County, CA, 10/23/2010
Looking south, here's the view of a grove of orange aspens (Populus tremuloides) by the rocky shore of Grant Lake at 7,131 feet above sea level in the Inyo National Forest. The intense orange of this particular group of aspen trees' autumn leaves makes them stand out not only against the rugged terrain, but against all the other trees as well. Behind the trees is Grant Peak (elevation 9,278 feet above sea level) and in the distance at far left is Reversed Peak (elevation 9,481 feet). This day started with a very colorful sunrise that I watched from nearby Mono Lake. As the day progressed the sky became increasingly cloudy. By late morning as I made this photograph by Grant Lake, a high layer of thin clouds had turned the sky to white. The softened sunlight was perfect for photographing these colorful trees while the white sky and glow gave the surrounding desolate landscape an almost colorless appearance by contrast! Grant Lake is situated within a horseshoe-shaped canyon at the west rim of the Great Basin and Range Province, abutting the steep eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada. This canyon was formed by glacial action. The Rush Creek glacier split in two when it encountered the resistant rock of what is now called Reversed Peak. Beginning in 1923, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power sought to purchase water rights in the Mono Basin to increase the capabilities of their aqueduct system, and by 1935 the Mono Basin Project was underway. Water was captured from nearby Parker Creek, Walker Creek, and Lee Vining Creek and diverted to Rush Creek at Grant Lake, where a large earthfill dam was constructed, giving the lake its current water level and appearance.
