A Mountain in Spring

Pinaleno Mountain Spring PORTFOLIO

I CRAWL OUT OF MY SLEEPING BAG AT 4:30 A.M. and check the sky. Stars are sparkling among the dark treetops. This may be the morning I've been waiting for. As I gather my equipment, I remember the thunderstorm that drenched the mountaintop yesterday evening. Now the forest floor glistens with moisture under my flashlight, and my breath clouds the chilly air.If the sky cleared early during the night, it may have gotten cold enough . . . .

When I reach the meadow a half hour later, I find what I had hoped for: a rare summer fog clings to the grass like a damp veil. I work quickly, but several minutes pass before there is enough light to focus my camera, and the controls are stiff from the cold. When all is ready, I wipe the moisture from the lens and check the scene one last time. Under the brightening sky, dew-laden wildflowers stand perfectly still in the delicate fog, as though posing. I make four exposures before a breeze carries away the mist and sets the flowers swaying. The sun is about to rise on the Pinaleno Mountains.

(LEFT) The bluebell invades a field of sneezeweed and Indian paintbrush at Hospital Flat.

(ABOVE) At Chesley Flat, dew clings to a pair of ladybugs and the bluebell upon which they perch.

(BELOW) A white-tailed doe watches a trespasser in a field at Peters Flat dotted with sneezeweed and corn lily.

(PRECEDING PANEL, PAGES 28 AND 29) White-trunked aspens seem to stand guard over a patch of sneezeweed and Western bracken near Peters Flat.

(BELOW) At Hospital Flat, a sunlit fog highlights ponderosa pines.

(OPPOSITE PAGE) A waterfall cascades down a mountainside at Post Creek.