Moonset Over Alabama Hills, California

Title

Moonset Over Alabama Hills, California

Artist

Ram Vasudev

Medium

Photograph

Description

Moonset over Alabama Hills, California (looking west). This panorama was captured an hour after the companion image “Sunrise at Alabama Hills, California� (see my Landscapes and Sierra Nevada galleries).

This is a very large stitched panorama (17272 pixels wide), so there are lot more details than what you see in the puny downsized image displayed here and a large print will be breathtaking.

The farthest pointy peak that is left of the center is Mount Whitney and is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States (an elevation of 14,505 feet). The mountain's west slope (the far side) is in the Sequoia National Park and is near the southern end of the John Muir Trail that runs from the Yosemite Valley. The eastern slope (the near side) is in Inyo National Forest, near Lone Pine in the Owens Valley. Mount Whitney has an alpine climate and ecology. All wildlife there is transient, such as the Gray-crowned Rosy Finch.

The Alabama Hills, in the mid-ground here, are a formation of rounded rocks and geologically complex Inyo Mountains. The rounded contours of the Alabamas contrast with the sharp ridges of Mount Whitney and other Sierra Nevada peaks to the west. There are two main types of rocks here. One is an orange, somewhat drab weathered metamorphosed volcanic rock that is 150–200 million years old. The other type of rock is 82-85 million years old biotite monzogranite which weathers to potato-shaped large boulders, many of which stand on end due to spheroidal weathering acting on many nearly vertical joints in the rock.

The foreground vegetation, consisting of few sagebrush species, provides a fascinating foreground to the rocks and boulders beyond.

The Alabama Hills have been a popular filming location for television and movie productions, especially when portraying rugged western scenes. Movies filmed here include Iron Man, The Walking Hills, How the West Was Won, and many others.

Mount Whitney, Alabama Hills, moonset, Lone Pine, Sequoia National Park, Inyo National Forest, Owens Valley, rocks, boulders, sagebrush

Thanks to the following groups for featuring this work
(1) Out West, 11/18/2013
(2) Essence of Nature, 12/05/2013

Image copyrighted
© Ram Vasudev
All rights reserved

This work is protected by US and International Copyright laws. Do not steal this art by downloading to a computer, printing, copying or reproducing in any form. It is illegal to do so and all infringements will be pursued to the full extent of the law.

Uploaded

November 16th, 2013

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