Cottonwoods with a dogwood understory, June Lake Loop

Cottonwoods with a dogwood understory, June Lake Loop


Sometimes it seems as if autumn will never come, but it always does. From all reports there wasn’t much color on the eastern side of the Sierra a week ago, but things have changed, and the aspens are just beautiful right now. Most of the usual spots near Lee Vining have great color, including the June Lake Loop, Parker Bench, Lundy Canyon, Conway Summit, the road to Virginia Lakes, Dunderberg Meadow, Green Creek, and Summers Meadows.

We had a wonderful day photographing all that color. Autumn in this area is just magical. Here’s one photo from the June Lake Loop this morning, and I’ll post more when I get a chance to process them.

In all the places I mentioned there were some green leaves, and few bare trees, so I’d say it’s just before the peak. The June Lake Loop had the most green aspens, so that area is probably a week or so from it’s peak, but there’s plenty of color there now. We didn’t visit Lee Vining Canyon (we drove through it in the dark last night), or points south like McGee Creek and Convict Lake. We might head south tomorrow, but then again the color is so nice around Lee Vining that we might just stay here!

—Michael Frye

Related posts: App Update is Ready; Fall Color in Yosemite; A Rainy, Misty Day in Yosemite Valley, and a Quick Fall Color Report

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author and photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, plus the eBook Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom. He has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.