October 24, 2011

Sawtooth Range, Owens Valley, California


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photo by Donald Kinney

Still charged with excitement and a sense of adventure from my visit to Bodie, I started making my way down the Owens Valley and got my first view of the jagged cliffs of the Sierra Nevada range.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

[source  Wikipedia]  The character of the range is shaped by its geology and ecology. More than 100 million years ago, granite formed deep underground. The range started to uplift 4 million years ago, and erosion by glaciers exposed the granite and formed the light-colored mountains and cliffs that make up the range. The uplift caused a wide range of elevations and climates in the Sierra, which are reflected by the presence of five life zones.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

This area is west of Bridgeport and offers hiking and backpacking that isn't for the faint of heart. This is inside the Toyabe National Forest and camping is available near Twin Lakes. Fishing is said to be outstanding here but many fishermen head to the headwaters of the Carson River to the east of Bridgeport.

I've never done any backpacking this far north, but my friend, Surfer-Dude Robert, related a harrowing story about one of his backpacking adventures where his group lost track of the trail they were supposed to be following and needed to make a devil-may-care course correction right across one of those jagged peaks.



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1 comment:

photowannabe said...

Stunning.

 
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