Tioga Road (CA 120) west of Lee Vining, Mono County, CA, 9/18/2007
"Per aspera ad astra" is a Latin phrase that means "through hardships to the stars". For me this idea is embodied in these pine trees, growing out of impossibly steep and inhospitable crumbling rock, reaching ever skyward toward the soaring mountain peaks! We're standing at an elevation of 8,280 feet above sea level by the side of Tioga Pass Road, northeast of Big Bend Campground in Lee Vining Canyon within the Inyo National Forest of California's Eastern Sierra. We're looking 3,000 feet above us at a summit that is 1.15 miles northwest and part of the Lee Vining Peak massif. While driving along Tioga Pass Road I immediately appreciated this spectacular scene of struggle and contrasts typical of the dramatic Eastern Sierra landscape. Oases of lush growth can be found here along streams and runoff channels, surrounded by stark desolation. In this composition the pines represent triumph over adversity and I love how the arrangement of the treetops echoes the serrated peaks above.
