Sierra Snow and Extended Sunset

I recently went to the Tahoe area and there was more pretty than I could capture, but here are the highlights:

The day started foggy, but up on the mountain, I could see it in the valley.

 The higher clouds here are caused by uplift of the air over that mountain.

 Pretty early on, the sun came out and shone brightly.

 It really highlighted the new snow.

 I wonder what's hiding under here?

 With the sun comes melting.

 But gives these large lichens lots of food.

 As the day wore on, the angles started getting really cool. It looked like diamonds in the snow.

 I wonder what these look like during the summer.

 I didn't realize grasses were so abundant here, usually they are covered in much more snow.

 This carved slopes really stood out to me.

On my way back home, west, the sunset lingered for over an hour and a half! Usually only 45 mins or so, my travels extended this sunset and I just died looking at all the pretty. 

Check them out in full size by clicking on the pic.

 

Holiday Time is Pretty Special

I have many more fall color pics to post, but tis the season for some winter wonder and modern christmas traditions. Note, all snow pics are from last year.

 Snow Stacks

So many beautiful vistas

Such a clear lake!

I head to Union Square every year for the holidays, here is a nearby church:

 Another tradition, santacon; where thousands roam the streets in costume:

 Even Rudolf showed up:

Naughty:

 

I liked this angle/alignment

 Sugar castle at the Westin St. Francis

 Wouldn't be the holidays without an Occupy Protest

 This tie is several hundred dollars at Louis Vuitton. Look kinda cool, right? Look closer...

 Closer...

This tree is 5 stories tall and plastic, where do they store it? 

 

And finally, some Capitol pretty.

What a difference a year makes! Here is Arnold's tree:

 

And Jerry Brown's tree, in the era of downsized state government:

 (Also note the manorah)

Calaveras In The Fall: Pretty Awesome

Sorry for the delay in posting, not sure if anyone reads these.

I went out to Calaveras Big Trees State Park early last month, and found so much pretty I couldn't fit it all in my camera.

This is a Snow Plant, which grows from the roots of nearby trees. They don't have chlorophyl and are basically parasites.

They also indicate a place to come back and find Morel mushrooms once the snow melts!

This tree had these great mushrooms growing on it (tree is dead now). I think this species glows in the dark.

A nice little creek on the way to the South Grove of Giant Sequoias

I'm not sure what kind of plant this is, but the red really caught my eye.

The Dogwood trees, which I love in the spring for their creamy white blooms, were in late fruiting and the colors were changing (which was the reason for this trip).

As you can see, the trees ranged from still green to deep red (there was even purple, but those pics didn't turn out too well).

The maples were also changing, you can even see how the green was getting sucked out of this leaf before it fell.

There was also a wide variety of lichen, which are moss and fungus living together (never noticed these in my many prior trips).

On the way home, I always stop at the Red Apple, where they have all kinds of wonderful apple creations, from cider to pies to doughnuts and all pastry in between. They have preserves and of course fresh apples when in season. These daisies greeted me.

Clearly, it was the peak of the season, with like 15 different varieties.

I'll post more soon...