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Bullfrog Lake and The Great Western Divide, Kings Canyon National Park

On a damp day in late August, I set out in the early morning hours to backpack from the Onion Valley trailhead, an Eastern approach into the Sierra Nevada, to Charlotte Lake, nine miles into the wilderness. The clouds above were dark and menacing.  As I neared the Sierra Crest’s Kearsarge Pass, the highest point of my trek at 11,709 ft. elevation, the thunderstorm that had been building all morning unleashed with a fury.  Pelted by rain and hail and surrounded by the crash of thunder and lighting, I quickly crested the mountain pass and found a lower place to wait out the storm.  A short time later, the summer storm broke and clear blue skies burst through the clouds.  The view that spread before me from my perch on the side of the mountain, spanning down to Bullfrog Lake and beyond to the Great Western Divide, was one of the most magnificent I had ever seen.  The air was crystal clear from the passing storm and Bullfrog Lake gleamed like a sapphire gem among the rugged mountain peaks.  I pulled out my camera and captured this shot, still one of my all-time favorites.