18 Minutes

Fall color along the east side of Tioga Pass, 6:03 a.m., Oct. 7, 2008.

Eighteen minutes later.

Too smoky to drive all the way out there this year. 

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Over the Pass

 

They say we're heading into a La Niña year, which supposedly could spell d-r-o-u-g-h-t. Shhh. Maybe if we're quiet, the beast won't awaken.

I made these photos crossing Tioga Pass in October 2008, during the "strong" La Niña season of 2007-08, when Sierra snowpack was well below average. Interestingly, we had another "strong" La Niña season in 2010-11, when snowpack was well above average. With any luck we'll get some fresh snow in the mountains this weekend.

 

Interestingly, snowpack was way below average during the "weak" El Niño year of 2014-15, and in 2015 the snowpack was basically nil at 5 percent of normal, a 500-year record low.

Like pikas living in the scree along the Nunatak Nature Trail, we'll just have to harvest what we can and hope we get through the winter okay.

You find treefrogs in the strangest places, such as here in High Country pika territory. I've also seen them in the desert. As long as there's a wet spot nearby, they are right at home.

If I remember right, this is Ellery Lake. The rabbitbrush is pretty much done at this altitude, but monarch butterflies are sipping nectar from their flowers down the hill.

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Fresh Air

 

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Phone snaps from our Sunday hike. I'll take fog over smoke any day.

Funny how it was so hot up there--baking hot and dry--and yet soon after we got back into the fog at home we had to turn the heat on to warm up the flat.

Sunday morning at Rock Spring, and not a single car.

View of East Peak on the way back down the hill.

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