The cautionary tale of a first fall colors trip

Many a year ago, my son, Rogan, who is also a photographer and I decided that we wanted to get some fall color photos.  Now, I had for years been going up and down hwy 395 on the eastern side of the Sierra.  There are lots of towns and lots of motels and they always have the vacancy sign out.  So, no knowing where we were staying, and thinking that we might camp, we took sleeping bags and tent  as a precaution, but planned on staying in one or more motels.

We headed over Tioga Pass and figured that we would try and visit some of the places that we had found mentioned on the web.

Well, … When we arrived, every motel in Lee Vining was full, every motel in Bridgeport was full, and it was below freezing at night.   Eventually we found a place that rented us a covered wagon that we could put our sleeping bags in.

The next day we started exploring Lundy Canyon and Bodie, and that was about all we knew about.  We found Boulder Lodge that had an opening.  Inexpensive, a place to sleep and shower.

We did Mono Lake at dawn

And then we were pretty much at a loss as to what to do…

So, we started exploring and driving around, and we have been doing that every year since.  The result is that we now have a rather large list of places to check out.  Some years if we are early then they are the places other years, when we are late,  other places.

However you decided to do fall colors, make sure to book a room….

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[latestbyauthor author=”Patrick” show=”3″]