January 18, 2018 Owens Lake and Olancha Dunes

I headed up to the southern Owens Valley on January 18th, hoping to photograph some awesome lenticular clouds in the lee of the Eastern Sierra Nevada in advance of a potent weather system. I knew that this day could be pretty good in that regard, and that morning there were some very pretty lenticulars already. Some folks even posted some spectacular sunrise lenticulars on Facebook. But, there is one thing I have learned when chasing these —- if it is a good morning show, then don’t expect a good afternoon and evening show; and vice-versa. The lenticulars are quite ephemeral and tend to migrate southward during the day as the jet stream sags southward through California.

One of my first stops was the Haiwee Reservoir. Access to the reservoir and the L.A. Water & Power buildings is blocked by gates, but there was a weather station at one of the gates to photograph.

From there I headed to Olancha and the nearby dunes. A south wind was blowing and kicking up the sand, and it was a somewhat hostile environment for camera equipment and human faces and eyes.

I continued towards Keeler, on the south side of Owens Lake, and got some zoom shots of blowing dust, a distant lenticular towards the east, and the Inyo Mountains behind Keeler. The new signs were near the junction to the south of Keeler.

From here I headed eastward towards the Panamint Valley, so check out the next entry for images of Rainbow Canyon!