Vistas from San Jacinto - CA

[Chris Dodkin]

Mount San Jacinto rises above Palm Springs CA - and can be scaled using a cable car, making the climb to 8,516 feet in just 10 minutes.

On the desert floor, it can be 90 degrees, but up on the mountain it's just 55 degrees - natures own AC.

There's a 1.5 mile trail around the summit, providing views to the desert floor through 'notches' in the granite rock - well worth the hike, but a little breath-taking (literally) when climbing around at this altitude!

Here are four views from the top - all taken with the X-Pro1 in Panoramic (portrait) mode - on the Induro tripod and pan head. 18mm Lens and CPL Filter.

Notch 4

Notch 3

Notch 2

Notch 1

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Looks beautiful. Sure I've seen it in a cowboy film

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Thanks Rob - not sure about the film use, but Peter Gabriel wrote a song about it!

[video=youtube_share;9J0yppewrvg]http://youtu.be/9J0yppewrvg[/video]

 

[Brian Moore]

These are lovely images, Chris. Last time we went up the aerial tramway I think Meg was only about 5. (She'll be 16 next week.) Anyway, down below, while waiting for the tram to descend so that we could board and ride up to the top of the mountain, I was describing to the children (Caiti was about 8 I think) how we'd be going up and I was pointing up through the windows and of course the big cables that the trams ride on were visible soaring up toward the peak. But no trams were visible at that moment and it hadn't occurred to me to mention them. Anyway, after a few minutes I became aware of a tug on my sleeve and it was Meg and she had a concerned look on her face. Indeed, she looked really worried. And so I asked her, what's the matter? And, pointing to the cables she asked me, with a great deal of trepidation, "Daddy,...do we have to climb those things?" I was really touched.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Thanks Brian - great story

 

[Brian Moore]

Love that Peter Gabriel video. Thanks for posting that, Chris. I'm very familiar with that song since I have the album, but that's the first time I saw him do it live.

 

[Ralph Thornton]

Nice shots. My favorite is the third one. But I'd try for it without the people. It's a nice comp though with nice themes.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Thanks Ralph - the human is a member of our party, so he's got it as a souvenir - could always photoshop him out!

 

[Pete Askew]

Very nice again Chris. I like the last one especially and No 2. Love the high contrast and saturated colour.

And the song is damn fine too - one of my favourites from Mr Gabriel.