Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Tranquility at Monolake

In Summer of 2004, i was introduced to the Fredmiranda Landscape Photographer Forum, one of best forums around, for Landscape Photography and in turn to Monolake, in the Eastern Sierra region of California.

Since then, Monolake had been on my photography travel wish list and every post of Monolake and the surrounding sierra region on FM, only increased my urge to visit Monolake.

Three years later, on a Summer morning in April 2007, when some of the photographers from the Northern California Photographers group planned a trip to Monolake and Bodie, i grabbed the chance and made the trip to Monolake.

We hit the road and after 7 hours of driving (thanks to our over confidence. Despite getting clear route instructions, we ended up driving for miles on the wrong highway, only to find about 3 feet of snow, a few miles before the destination). The road was closed and we had to turn back.

We summoned our GPS to give us the driving directions and it led through roads where only two wheelers would make it. We trusted the GPS and drove through small villages, mini forests, small towns and it did finally put us on to Highway 88, from where we drove to US 395, the highway that goes around the Eastern Sierras.

The First view of Monolake was breath taking and spell bound. The sub zero degree temperature, the wet sand, the chill waters, the snow mountains in the background, the interesting Tufa formations in the lake seen through a layer of fog and the whole landscape lit by a full moon and pre dawn light was just ethereal.

Standing at the bank of the lake during the first light, you go speechless, your eyes get moist, you feel like coming down on your knees, spread your arms and submit yourself to Mother Nature. Neither words nor pictures can make any justice to express the feeling one gets, when you first visit Monolake on a chilly winter morning.

I spent two mornings at Monolake and shot some images of the lake. The Pictures do not make any justice to the beauty of the place.

Here's one of my favourites from the trip.

Pre dawn at Monolake


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Monolake and the Tufas, shot before Dawn.

To know more about Monolake, check out the Monolake website here.