Note: I am away for a couple of weeks on a trip. In the meantime, help yourself; feel free to pick and choose, one or more. Just click on the photo, download, and transfer to your phone. Enjoy!
Free John Muir Trail Smartphone Wallpaper
Feel free to pick and choose, one or more. Just click on the photo, download, and transfer to your phone. Enjoy!
A Good Trail Photo
I’ve written quite a bit about cameras on the trail, but for most hikers the best alternative is their phone or a simple point-and-shoot. More important than the camera are the photos! Many of my readers send me shots from time to time and over the years I’ve come to recognize what makes a good John Muir Trail photo. Here are some things to consider.
~ I’m not going to comment on technical matters, like composition or exposure. Those are important, but are beyond the scope of this article.
~ First, decide what the purpose of your photo is going to be. Is it for artistic purposes or for purposes of recollection? The latter will be true for the vast majority of hikers, so make sure you will be able to remember what you want to from the shots you take.
~ Second, get yourself in the photo! Either hand your camera to someone else or, even better, take along a tiny, lightweight tripod. Besides the mandatory shots of you at the top of passes and the top of Mount Whitney, get some at favorite break spots and a favorite campground. The photo below is one of my favorites simply because it tells a fairly comprehensive story.
~ Pass on the shots of wildlife if the animal is distant, but go ahead and shoot if the critter is close. If you can fill 20% of the viewfinder (or viewscreen) with the animal, go for it! The most likely candidates will be marmots, who are not at all shy. Deer are often bold, like these. (Although deer are common on the trail, this is one of my favorite wildlife photos, mostly because of the curious looks on the face of the animals.)
~ Get some good shots of the trail itself. After all, that is what you want to remember most. Again, try to tell a story with your photo. My favorite photo (of the trail itself) is on the cover of my book. The trail, the trees, the grass, the mountains, the snow, and the sky all combine to recount what life is like out there.
~ Don’t forget to shoot the small stuff. My favorites are trail signs; strange, twisted stumps; and geologic oddities.
~ Most cameras (especially those in phones) have a panorama function. Use it!
Most of all, make sure you are taking photos of the things that are important to you. Years from now, that’s what you will want to see. The photos I most regret NOT taking are the ones where the scene is most clear in my mind, like a particularly perfect spot, next to an alpine lake, where I had lunch during the summer of 2015, or that campsite with exquisite view.
One last tip, if you are shooting with a iPhone, you might want to consider making a book using the Mosaic app (video at link). It’s pretty neat.
Good hiking, Ray
John Muir Trail Smartphone Wallpaper
Feel free to pick and choose, one or more. Just click on the photo, download, and transfer to your phone. Enjoy!
Are You Ready for the Rain?
They call the Sierra Nevada “The Gentle Wilderness”, but it does rain. Two years ago it rained almost every day for two weeks in August. Make sure you have a strategy to either stay dry, or get dry, and make sure if you have a down sleeping bag that it is protected from the weather at all costs.
John Muir Trail Smartphone Wallpaper
Feel free to pick and choose, one or more. Just click on the photo, download, and transfer to your phone. Enjoy!
The Painted Lady
So many miles, so many views. The Painted Lady hovering over one of the Rae Lakes. Feel free to click on the image, download, and use this as wallpaper.
Lots of Reasons to Love Sallie Keyes Lakes
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I think the most picturesque place on the entire John Muir Trail is Marie Lake. I always make an effort to camp there. When one starts to list the reasons to like a place, however, there are few places that can top Sallie Keyes Lakes. Here is why:
- It’s has a beauty all it’s own. The reason there are two Sallie Keyes Lakes is because a triangular isthmus runs between the eastern and western bodies of water. If you are hiking southbound, that isthmus starts narrow and widens as you move south. That land in the middle includes a small hill which is a great place to take a break.
- It’s also a great place for breakfast. If you camp at Marie Lake the night before like I do you’ll reach Sallie Keyes less than a couple of hours after leaving camp. I like to get some distance behind me before I eat my morning meal, and this is about as nice a place you could pick to do so. There is lots of water for cooking and refilling your container of choice, trees to provide shade (something you will see less and less of as you move south), and several downed trees to provide a seat or backrest.
- The trail runs very close to the water. Water is almost everywhere on the JMT, but you don’t get to hike right next to it all the time. Even less frequently do you walk within a few feet of a lake and stay under a nice canopy of tree limbs.
- You will have just passed over your third major pass. Seldon Pass is less than two miles to the north, so you will still have that wonderful glow that comes with putting a pass behind you. You’ll experience that feeling six more times on the trial: once for the other five passes and once when you come down off the summit of Mount Whitney.
- You will arrive at Muir Trail Ranch in just a few hours and it is almost all downhill. Whether you are spending two nights and a zero day, one night, or just getting your resupply and moving on, it’s always a treat to descend into MTR. When you leave you will have more than half of the trail behind you!
If everything goes as planned, I’ll visit Sallie Keyes Lakes next on Wednesday morning, September 9th. I can’t wait!
Good hiking, Ray
Fin Dome
Fin Dome near sunset, one day before the rains began.
The Most Beautiful Mountain on the John Muir Trail?
What is the most beautiful mountain one can see from the John Muir Trail? There are several candidates. Mount Whitney isn’t picturesque, but is surely a joy to see when one finally does. The Painted Lady, Fin Dome, and Mount Clarence King are all impressive. For sheer massiveness and symmetry, however, East Vidette has to be the winner. A vidette, by the way, is “a mounted sentry positioned beyond an army’s outposts to observe the movements of the enemy.”