It was one of those days you just know is going to be picture perfect. As I drove towards Lee Vining towards areas well known for color I spotted a bit of orange up a canyon to the West. I turned off on the next dirt road that turned out to be more of a trail than a road. Clearly I was on the wrong one but it kept heading in the right direction. I turned left on the first road I could find and it got me started back in the right direction. Then, bummer, a good size creek blocked the road and I was only driving a Toyota Sports Coup. I got out and check the water which was a little over a foot deep and a muddy bottom with a fair drop off from the rocks down into the creek. Checking the phone there was no cell service. If we got stuck it was a number of miles back to Highway 395. Throwing caution to the wind I went for it. We made it though water made it up to the doors on the car.

I continued on into the canyon only to find a gate blocking the road I needed to be on and the color was still a ways up the road. I threw on my backpack, grabbed the tripod and camera and began hiking up the road. Eventually it paid off and I found myself alone down in the aspens glowing yellow to deep orange. I spent about an hour taking pictures but had left the wife and dog with the car and needed to get back to them. I came to the end of the orange and the aspens suddenly turned bare so I turned back toward the car. It's too bad this area isn't left open for fall color. It was great and nice being outdoors in the mountains though I had the strangest sense that I was being watched.