Coyote

Today was a day of remarkable contrasts. We left Furnace Creek in Death Valley at 200 feet below sea level and, as we headed north through the Owens Valley, reached 7,000 then 8,000 feet above, with all the changes in topography, landscape and vegetation that implies. Just before we left the desert, this coyote ran across the road in front of us. We pulled into a layby and it circled the car a few times, obviously looking for food. It's a pretty scrawny specimen. We saw another coyote later in the day, in the pine forest near Mammoth Lakes, and it was much healthier looking.

One of the reasons behind the trip is to take a few photographs (a few memory cards worth, that is). An inspiring landscape photographer was the late Galen Rowell, whose gallery in the town of Bishop we were able to visit on the way through. I know his work from books and the web, but it was even more inspiring to see the real prints, though I was under close supervision and my credit card escaped relatively unscathed, apart from a book. I learned two things from the prints. First, landscape photography is all about light (I knew that but Rowell was a master). Second, that the resolution available to us from today's digital cameras is way ahead of that of the slide film Rowell used. From his writings just before he was tragically killed, it is clear that, although he only used film, he could see that the digital age was coming. What a pity he didn't survive to see and exploit it. His understanding of light was incredible.

As we got closer to our destination, we entered the world of snow-capped mountains, thick pine forests and beautiful lakes. Tomorrow, we go to Yosemite.