Owens Valley & White Mountains

Even though I had never seen any reports or images, I knew of Owens Valley Cottonwood groves that should be photogenic with gold autumn leaves, and it was only slightly out of my way to Zion, so what the hell... And I'm glad that I did visit the area because:

• I had a productive 3 mornings shooting autumn color around Bishop and Lone Pine. The valley's Cottonwoods weren't quite at their peak color, but the surrounding sage, rabbit brush, and grasses were. The overall combination was magical.

• I found and photographed the "13 Moons" petroglyph, whose location is not public. I recently saw images which showed some surrounding land features and was therefore able to roughly triangulate its location as being near to another "secret" rock art panel I found and photographed in 2017 – "Sky Rock" (image link). I enjoy the sleuthing process and was rewarded with another high when the second panel was found.

• I finally visited the ancient Bristlecone pines of the nearby White Mountains. My goal was to explore the remote, northern-most groves. Alas, I found foot deep snow above 11,000', making the dirt road's last few miles impassable. So, I instead had a fun time in the Patriarch Grove; having it totally to myself.

• I visited the nearby Death Valley Wild Rose Kilns on the way to Zion, and got an rewarding night image.

On the way to Zion, I stopped at the Las Vegas airport and picked up Bend friend, Andy – he joined me for the remainder of the trip and the workshop. Together we continued to Zion. Unfortunately, we found the autumn color disappointing – browner than gold leaves due to an earlier heavy freeze. But we heard that Canyon de Chelly's Cottonwoods' color was great and peaking. So after a single short day in Zion, we headed off. En route, we spent the night in Kanab to try our luck in the early-morning permit lottery for The Wave – see the next gallery...

Panoramas – Tap/click on a pano's thumbnail to show an interactive, moving panorama; use the on-screen control bar or your finger/mouse to move around:

Bristlecone Pines sunset:

High Sierra Crest from the White Mountains:

Image Gallery – Tap to view an individual image, then swipe to advance; use the top-right controls for auto play & other options (e.g, tap the curved arrow to open sharing options):