California Photo Scout

Horeseshoe Lake

Mammoth Lakes is a popular ski resort town in the Sierra Nevada. During the winter months, the slopes are busy with skiers and snowboarders. The hotels and restaurants skim whatever they can from the fat wallets of visitors. If price would directly relate to fun, visitors would have the best days of their lives on winter weekends in Mammoth Lakes. As in the animal kingdom, safety in numbers provides your only protection against the sharks. Rent a cabin with a bunch of friends and share the cost.

Mammoth Lakes is more affordable during the “off season” summer months. The availability of restaurants and hotels makes it a good choice for a base camp during visits to Bodie, Mono Lake, Tioga Pass, Devils Postpile and many other great places in the Sierra Nevada. You can easily spend a week in the area and keep discovering new and exciting places.

Besides being a good place to rest, feed and gas up, Mammoth Lakes has a few attractions on its own. Most noticeably, many beautiful and some unique lakes surround the city. Photographing the lakes is pure joy, especially with the peaks of the Sierra Nevada in the background. The high altitude air is exceptionally clean, making hikes to photo locations a delight and a strain at the same time. To me, photography adventures in the Sierra Nevada are synonymous for clean pure fun in pristine nature. Come here to find out what I mean!

How to get there

Mammoth Lakes Map (click to enlarge)

From US395, take the Mammoth Lakes Turnoff (Highway 203 at 37°38’27.42″N 118°55’5.03″W). Highway 203 will become Main Street, which will turn into Lake Mary Road. Follow the road to Lake Mary.

The altitude scale of the map is in meters !

GPS position

• 37°36’38.99″N 119° 0’37.75″W

How to photograph Mammoth Lakes Basin

Ghost Tree (McLeod lake hike)

The area around Mammoth Lakes is home to a large number of alpine lakes competing in beauty and cleanliness. Each one of the lakes is a striking photography subject.

One of the most unusual lakes is Horseshoe Lake (first picture at the top of this article). Mammoth Mountain releases large amounts of toxic CO2 gas around this area. The lake itself has a smooth but dead beach area with bleached wood at its shore. The water is crystal clear and completely devoid of life. The utter disregard of so many people for the warning signs puzzled me. Prolonged exposure to the CO2 is unhealthy. I have faith my readers are smarter and that you will not suffocate your brain cells like the people who sit down with their children for a day at the beach.

McLeod Lake

After you spent just a few minutes at Horseshoe Lake, you can take the trail to McLeod Lake. It is easy to forget that you are at 2700m (8800 feet) altitude in an area of high CO2 concentration, so take it easy on the trail.

At first, the trail leads through a dead forest. The high concentration of CO2 is responsible for the death of these trees. The ghostly white trees look amazing against the dark blue sky. Use your polarizing filters careful at these altitudes to avoid unintentionally unrealistic looking images. You could blacken the sky under the right conditions and achieve a rather surreal effect.

Twin Lakes Overview

The trail ascends for a few hundred meters until it leads to the unusually blue looking McLeod Lake.
A large amount of sun-bleached driftwood surrounds the shore of McLeod Lake. Use it for your composition. By moving around a bit, you can always find a log or a number of logs that form just the right shapes to frame a shot, guide the viewer or maybe replicate a landscape feature.

Lake George

I found a cave built from driftwood near the trailhead and used it to frame a section of the lake from inside the cave.

Boat on Lake Mary

A small roadside parking area (near the GPS coordinate above) on the road between Lake Mamie and Twin Lakes marks a good place for an aerial photo of Twin Lakes. Unfortunately, the forest in the foreground covers most of the view, leaving only a small window through which you can shoot. Using a telephoto lens, you can take the same photograph I took but the options for creativity are limited.

Each of the lakes is photogenic. Lake Mary is a popular lake for boaters. You can always find a few deserted boats at the shore and use them in your composition. Lake George has a great looking rocky shore that makes a fantastic foreground for your wide-angle compositions. You can reach many more lakes via short trails.

Best Time of the Day and Best Season

Early morning light is best for most compositions, since the peaks of the Sierra Nevada will be to the west of the lakes. Any time of the year that the lakes are accessible should be good.

Time required

You can spend one hour or an entire day in this area. You can go on trails or just take a driving tour around the lakes with a few quick hops out of your car. It’s best to be flexible so you can stay as long as you see fit.

Equipment

• Bring all your lenses and filters.
• Water
• Mosquito repellant
• Sun screen
• Hiking shoes

Fees

There is no entrance fee. Do not park in any of the campgrounds though.

Dangers

Trees in the area around Horseshoe Lake are dead due to the Carbon Dioxide and Helium discharge from Mammoth Mountain. Follow the safety advice (link below) and limit your exposure to the area.

Close Locations

• Mammoth Consolidated Mine
• Devils Postpile National Monument and Rainbow Falls
• Mono Lake
• Tioga Pass
• Mono Craters
• June Lake Scenic Loop
• Convict Lake
• Hot Creek
• Bodie SHP
• Chemung Mine and Masonic Town
• Crowley Lake
• Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest
• McGee Canyon
• Carson Pass, Carson Creek and Monitor Pass

Useful Resources

• Lake Information
• CO2 and He Discharge from Horseshoe Lake

Subscribe to my feed and be the first to learn about the secret places to photograph.

If you like this post, use the buttons below to bookmark it or vote for it.

Tweet This! :: E-Mail This!
Do you find this post de.licio.us? Tell people that you reddit!