THE SOUND OF SILENCE IN THE EASTERN SIERRA – Nature Does Not Have to Make A Noise to Be Seen, Heard or Felt by Gary Smolker

    

The Sound of Silence

You can feel and see and hear “silence” by looking at the absolute stillness in these pictures.

You can see and feel and hear the “absolute” stillness of the air and sky above the pond and see and feel and hear the absolute stillness of the water in a pond in the three pictures above.

Each of the above pictures is a photograph of the reflections in a still pond of the sky and clouds and mountain above the pond.

Each one of those four pictures was taken by me while I was in Mono County, California during a long weekend that began late in the afternoon on October 16, 2015, when I flew out of LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) to the Mammoth/Yosemite Airport in the Eastern Sierra.

Each photograph shows the reflections I observed as I walked along land adjacent to one side of a pond.

Each of those four pictures was taken before dawn.

There was no movement in the air.

There was no movement of the the water or in the water.

The still pond water acted as a mirror — reflecting the clouds in the sky above the pond, flora (bushes, shrubs, trees, etc.) next to the pond and a mountain range located far away from the pond.

Grass and part of a plant growing in front of the pond and the top of a rock in the pond is shown in the photograph below.

The photograph below shows the bushes, trees and other plants growing on the far side of the pond, as well as the bottom of a mountain range reflected in the pond.

Parts of a mountain and of a mountain range is shown in each of those four photographs.

 

Someone asked me if the above picture was taken by me while I was looking out the mouth of a cave.

Another Pitch of The Sound of Silence is Heard Felt and Seen in the Photographs Below

The next set of photographs were taken by me in the Town of Mammoth Lake, in the Eastern Sierra, on October 19, 2015.

  

Another Sound, Another Timber of the Sound of Silence is Felt, Seen and Heard in the Following Photographs

Below is a photograph taken by me on October 19, 2015 from a bridge over looking a lake in the Town of Mammoth Lakes, California, in the Eastern Sierra.

Below is a photograph of the same lake taken from a different place on the same bridge.

Below is a photograph of a doe, taken by me on Monday, October 19, 2015.

I stopped to photograph that doe, when I saw that doe from an SUV I was riding in.

The doe was standing on the path I was driving on.

The doe is standing near a growth of woods just outside the commercialized part of the Town of Mammoth Lakes.

 

  Daydreaming Aside A Slowly Flowing Creek

The poetic beauty of the brilliant groves of trees lining the banks of the slowly flowing waters in creeks I walked by kept me in a constant hypnotic state of wonderment.

Above and below are photographs of groves of trees which line many of the flowing creeks in Mono County, California.

I took last each of those photographs last weekend.

I was so far away from “civilization” when I took those photographs that even the sound – if any – of water flowing in those those creeks was inaudible to me.

 

Think Poetic Thoughts

I think it is impossible not to think poetic thoughts while you are in the environment shown in the three pictures below.

I took each of those three pictures as I was walking along a stream early in the morning on Saturday, October 17, 2015.

A Beaver Pond

Below are two photographs I took of a Beaver Pond on Saturday, October 17, 2015.

The Beaver Pond is to the right.

The first photograph below shows one of two dams beavers built in a slowly flowing stream to form a pond for them to use in that stream.

The second photograph (below) shows a dam at the top of the pond created by beavers and also shows the dam at the bottom of the pond built by beavers.

 

A Few Minutes Away from the Lake Mammoth/Yosemite Airport

I took the above photograph at McGee Creek, which is a few miles from the Mammoth Lakes/Yosemite Airport.

I immediately drove to McGee Creek after I arrived at Mammoth Lakes/Yosemite Airport.

The above photograph was taken by me in the early evening on Friday, October 16, 2015.

McGee Creek is lined with brilliant aspen groves and surrounded by massive peaks.

All the photographs in this post were taken by me with the camera in my smart phone, which is an iPhone.

Leaves Changing From Green to Other  Colors Make No Audible Noise

For two weeks during the year, in October each year, leaves on trees in the Eastern Sierra change color without making a sound.

 

Nature Doesn’t Have to Make Noise to Be Heard

The picture below was taken on October 19, 2015 when I stopped on a road I was on while going to the Mammoth Lakes/Yosemite Airport from the Town of Mammoth Lakes.

The bottom two pictures above were taken at Mono Lake, California, in the Eastern Sierra last weekend.

Tufa is the name of a rock that grows under the salty water of Mono Lake.

Tufa is created when fresh water from the many underground springs which lay under Mono Lake come up from under Mono Lake and hit the salty lake water.

That entire Tufa rock formation shown in the above photo was under the Mono Lake until the elevation of the lake dropped.

Over the past few years the water level in Mono Lake has receded dramatically.

Mono Lake is mired in drought.

Four dry years have depressed Mono Lake five feet in elevation and the lake is expected to lose around two feet this year.

The retreating lake (declining lake level) has exposed Tufa shoals, one of which is pictured above.

Expansive views from almost any vantage point in the Mono Basin tell a stark and undeniable story of four consecutive years of drought, above average temperatures, and the combined effects on Mono Lake.

Honesty

 

 

 

While hiking in the natural landscape of the Eastern Sierra, last weekend, I saw spectacular arrays of golden, crimson and orange aspen and cottonwood groves as well as free standing pine trees.

The above photographs say honestly and sincerely, without adornment, that the beauty of nature doesn’t have to make noise to be seen, felt or heard.

A Sense of Humor

The Eastern Sierra, especially in the area around June Lake, is a big fishing area.

The people in the areas around the fishing lakes are friendly and have a great sense of humor, which is expressed in signs sold in local stores.

Below are photographs taken by me of some of those signs.

 

 

 

Regarding Nature

“There is pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is rapture in the lonely shore,

There is society where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar:

I love not man the less, but Nature more.”

The photographs below were taken by me several months ago, in March, 2015, along the shore of the Pacific Ocean in Marin County, California.

The poem quoted above and the poem quoted below was written by Lord Byron.

“She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.”

Copyright © Gary S. Smolker 2015, All Rights Reserved