The Devil's Gate | Eastern Sierra Nevada
In a New Year celebration near Bridgeport, California I captured some video after a major snowstorm hit the region. The footage is a celebration of a complex compass that plants can endure in the winter. This entry was inspired by those extremes—a visual three minute journey exploring how life in the transition between mountains and desert deal with a harsh winter climate.
Cercocarpus ledifolius, Abies concolor, Pinus jeffreyi, Juniperus grandis, and Juniperus osteosperma eek out an existence on the edge of a rain shadow.
In areas such as these a plant must be able to handle temperature and moisture extremes. As a cat preens its fur, a evergreen cares for
its needles. These waxy progeny are coddled—often for many years—built to cope with high and low temperatures while also regulating water loss during
warmer months. Additionally, evergreens are not
inhibited by late spring or even summer frosts which might otherwise kill the
leaves of a less waxy leaf on a deciduous plant. The conifers and curl-leafed mountain mahogany of the high desert are less inhibited by the harsh climatic extremes of the eastern Sierra Nevada.
This is such a beautiful part of the state, and so different from the other side of the Sierra (and everywhere else). Thanks for capturing it.
Reply to this