After a long midday drive from the bay area and waiting for moonrise at Mono Lake, Rob Y and I hurried to Hot Creek near Mammoth to grab a shot. We arrived around 1 am but the moon would not be directly overhead until 3:45-ish so we set the alarm to sneak in some much needed rest. Sleeping in the car when it is 23 deg F is not the most fun ever, but I guess it is slightly better than sleeping OUTSIDE.
The alarm dinged and we sprung awake and out the door to take our picture. By this time, morning twilight had begun and some overhead clouds were reflecting orange in the meandering creek.
We finished and raced down to Bishop for our next adventure...offroading through dry creek beds in the Chidago Canyon petroglyph area...in 100 degree heat!
Hot Creek flows down from Mammoth Lakes and becomes geothermally heated as it mixes with another source. These steam effusions are the result of the ambient temp being below freezing in this case(23 F) and the flowing creek water being much warmer or even hot. There are periodic geysers as well that shoot 6ft straight up. People are no longer permitted to swim here as there have been 14 deaths in recent years.
This is a vertical pano with the DFA 90mm 2.8 Macro lens on the 645Z. This is mostly straight from camera as it required little additional processing work.
Thanks for visiting!