This is a view of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Alabama Hills at Sunrise. This spot offers a sharp contrast between the sandstone rock of the Alabama Hills, with the gray granite of the Sierras and Mount Whitney. At 14,505 feet, Mt. Whitney holds the distinction as the highest peak in the lower-48 states. The Alabama Hills, located west of Lone Pine, in California’s Owens Valley is famous for its frequent use as a Hollywood filming location, particularly of old classic Westerns.
This area can be accessed via California’s beautiful Route 395.
Bald Mountain is an 11,949-foot peak of the Uinta Mountain Range in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. It can be found along the Mirror Lake Highway (State Hwy 150) which passes through the range from Kamas, Utah, to Evanston, WY.
The Uinta Mountains, a subrange of the Rocky Mountains, are the highest east-west mountain range in the United States, and the highest mountain range in the state of Utah. The highest peak, Kings Peak is 13,528 ft. Much of the rain from the east and southeast portions of the range flow into the Green River, and ultimately down the Colorado River to Mexico. Whereas water from the west and northwest portions of the range flow into the Provo, Weber and Bear Rivers. All three rivers flow into lakes, including Bear Lake, Utah Lake, and the Great Salt Lake, which is itself the end point for all three rivers, in Utah’s West Desert.
Given the shortness of the trail (about 2.7 miles round trip), the hike up and back from the summit probably offers the best bang for the buck of any trail in the Uinta Mountains. The view from the top as the photos show is amazing. The hike is probably best from April to September, but to avoid the potential for snow and cold weather, June-August are probably the best months.
Bison (Buffalo) graze in the grasslands beneath the Teton Range, in Grand Teton National Park. The park, established in 1929 by President Calvin Coolidge, is located in the Jackson Hole valley of Wyoming. It is connected with Yellowstone National Park to the north via the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. The park owes much of its existence to Rockefeller, who believed so strongly that the Jackson Valley needed to be preserved, that he purchased large portions of it, before turning control over to the Federal Government for conservation.
American bison can weigh from around 400 to 1,270 kilograms (880 to 2,800 pounds). It has been estimated that more than 60 million roamed North America in the late 18th century, while only 500,000 survive today. As of 2019, the Bison herd in Grand Teton numbered approximately 600 animals, while in neighboring Yellowstone the population is around 5,000.
