Evening in the rocky basin above Lake Marjorie near Pinchot Pass, Crater Mountain on the horizon.

The Quiet Side

Lake Marjorie, Kings Canyon National Park, California

I took Pinchot Pass in the evening rather than saving it for morning like the guidebooks draw it, and camped alone in the barrens above Lake Marjorie. That is Crater Mountain across the basin. The color up here after sunset sits barely above monochrome — gray rock, violet air — and I kept it that way instead of warming it, because the whole point of an evening pass is arriving on the empty, quiet side of it.

Nikon Z 7_2 · 17-35mm f/2.8D · 22mm · f/5 · 1/500 · ISO 125

July 5, 2025

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