Taken in the Gardiner Basin, Kings Canyon National Park, California, on July 19th, 2018.
On the day I took this photograph I was at war with myself. I was standing on a rocky outcrop high in the Kings Canyon backcountry deciding which direction to hike. To my right was a welcoming valley full of idyllic meadows, gurgling streams, and bountiful sunlight. To my left was a menacing thunderstorm pounding an endless moonscape of Volkswagen-sized talus, without a single blade of grass to be seen.
These were my two options, and while at first glance the valley to right seemed like the obvious choice, I instead went left, battling into the thunderstorm and wrestling my way over the great blocks of granite in my path. As the rain spattered around me and lightning and thunder crashed over the outcrop where I had just been standing, I was having second thoughts about my choice. But I continued nevertheless, because I had made a promise to myself that I wasn’t going to break.
I had heard of the legendary beauty of the Gardiner Basin, but on this trip I was finally going to see it for myself. Moreover, I wanted to photograph it during the final moments of a monsoon thunderstorm. This goal was why I decided to press on into the storm, rather than retreat to a valley full of sunshine. In the world of landscape photography, conditions are never guaranteed. And if I wanted to see the Gardiner Basin at the tail end of a thunderstorm, well then I had to hike to the basin during a thunderstorm.
But I have experienced many dozen, if not hundreds, of Sierra thunderstorms, and I know that they have a tendency to dry out after a few hours of ferocious rain. Sure enough, as I approached the lip of the talus field, the storm began to break, exposing the entirety of the basin to view. Within minutes, a brilliant, supernumerary rainbow appeared behind me, arcing over the mountains to the east. To date this abrupt change from ominous storm to intense beacon of light is one of the most profound moments I’ve experienced in the backcountry.
After photographing the rainbow for nearly an hour (!), I set off to explore the basin in more depth. I quickly came to a series of tarns set high on a granite bench. Due to their position overlooking the basin, these tarns seemed to be the world’s most incredible infinity pools. They reflected everything in sight, from the shining face of Mount Gardiner to the lingering remnants of the thunderstorm. I felt a deep peace wash over me and had to put the camera down just so I could exist within the landscape for a few moments. My heart was soon overflowing and I knew I couldn’t hold back any longer.
I grabbed my wide angle lens and composed a vertical image to show the boulders beneath the tarn’s surface in addition to the expansiveness of the sky. The sun slipped closer to the horizon and cast a cozy blanket of warm light across the scene. I knew a special moment was at hand, and I pressed the shutter button, capturing this photograph.
