With the exception of the rabbit brush shot at the end of the post, all of these were taken on Sunday, October 8. By now, these areas are likely well past peak, but probably still scenic.
Despite many fishing trips in the eastern Sierra when I was younger, from boyhood through until young adulthoold), these are two places I never visited, before. Both had been mentioned prominently in some of the fall folliage websites I had been perusing the past few years, however, so I wanted to visit both. I feared overwhelming crowds at both, however, so I had to choose which to try to hit first.
Because the websites had mention aspen near the start of the McGree Creek trails, and also mentioned a small lot, and so urged you to "come early," started there. Got there a little later than intended, because I initially left Bishop (my home base for this weekend trip) without tossing my camera bag in the car. Had to turn around and drive back, wasting about 40 minutes.
From Bishop, I headed north on U.S. 395 for about 30 miles, before turning left on McGree Creek Road. Having never been here, before, I then needed to slow down to figure out what next. There's a lodge right after you turn, and a rather narrow road to the right of the lodge. That's the road you need to follow, heading straight up after the stop sign.
It's paved but occasionally steep and rough until you get near the campground. Then the pavement ends. Still easily passable by passenger vehicles, but narrow. When I got there, before 9am, there was still plenty of parking. When I left, in mid-afternoon, the parking lot was overflowing, and a lot of people were there for the fall foliage.
Vault toilets at the trailhead. Then you head upstream. The trail splits at several points, where you can either hug the river or go a bit higher. Because the sun hadn't yet reached the vally floor, I stayed high and headed up. John Muir Wilderness sign maybe a 1/2 mile up. Very picturesque near there, and ever more so on my return, when the sun was hitting the entire canyon, but clouds kept the view up from being too glare-y.
I continued up until where the map indicated a fairly large lake, but reality indicated was a large marshy meadow with a brook meadering across. Some color on the cliffs across the way. Took a detour on the return to get a face-on view of a waterfall that came down from the left (when heading down-canyon), as seen in the previous shot, and as seen from when closer to the trailhead at the top of this post.
Returned to my car, ate lunch, then drove to Rock Creek Canyon. Took a scenic route; should have stayed on 395 until Tom's Place, but the way I went (next turn off of 395, south) took me through a picturesque town. Eventually got to actual Rock Creek Road. I think the speed limit is something like 35 or 40mph, but cars wanted to drive much faster. Continued upstream to near the end of the road (not knowing where the colorful aspen would be), wound up parking about 1/2 mile from the end, when the traffic started backing up, walked up to the end of the road, then picked a random short trail to walk. That ended up being a 1/2 mile trail to Eastern Brook Lake.
As I neared the end of my drive, graupel started falling. That's frozen precipitation that's harder than snow but softer than hail. Because of recent warm temperatures, it didn't stick on the road, but did accumulate a bit off the roads. It continued falling on my short hike to a picturesque lake, which I assume must have at one time been planted with eastern brook trout.
However, this lake, like I"m sure the others on the longer trail to a chain of additional lakes, was above the aspen line. Just confiers. Having never been up this way, I didn't know. So I walked back down the trail, then down the road. Aspen and willow lined the creek than ran by the parking area and the road back to the parking area. I took plenty of photos.
Then I drove down to actual Rock Creek Lake. Parked near the start of the road to Rock Creek Lake campground, since I assumed by the sign that only camp parking was allowed down the road. This was not correct, so I ended up walking more than I needed to. Once near the lake, there were more roads and paths to walk adjacent to the lake, some with good aspen color right along the road.
There was more color along the shoreline. However, being late afternoon by now, the sun was above the lake from were I walked, creating a strong clare off the water, which made photography over the lake difficult. Once I got to the southern end, I took some pictures, including some of a few people fishing near the inlet to Rock Creek Lake. There was the impressive snag, pictured here, near that southern end.
Then drove back down to Bishop. Long day, with about a six mile hike out and back from McGee Creek, and several shorter walks in the upper Rock Creek area, both around Rock Creek Lake and to Eastern Brook Lake. Were I to return to Rock Creek Canyon, I'd definitely want to walk more along the upper reaches, though not for aspen. For aspen, further down, well below Rock Creek Lake, were several campgrounds along the creek, with lots of aspen stands. For the fall, I'd spend more time down there.
This last photo was from the Division Creek rest area. Rabbit brush was thick in bloom down in Owens Valley. With more time, I would have wandered down there, to try to get some fall blooms in my collection.
A little rushed for such a long drive, but still, got one pretty full day of fall foliage. I also took a few hours on October 7 to hit North Lake and parts of Bishop Canyon. May try to get that posted soon, too. Also still waiting to be blogged are some summer hikes in the Sierra, among others.
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