If being a good patient was one of my virtues, I would have already recovered from my cold.  Other chronic ailments made it a little worse.  I still have a lingering cough and laryngitis.  It was not the smartest idea to go camping in the mountains after a night of high fever and chills, but I had my reasons, however unreasonable they may have been.  After weeks of not amounting to much, I couldn’t wait to look through the photos I took there.

My husband was also getting over the cold he had caught.  We were feeling better that morning, so we decided to go after all, but with the proviso of not walking any trails or cooking dinner.

I love to camp at 10,000ft (3,048m) because of the cooler temperatures, even though I get altitude sickness there.  Since both of us were still under the weather, it was worse for me this year, and even my husband, who is usually unaffected by altitude change, suffered from it this time.  Despite that, we had a wonderful time puttering around the High Sierra mountains.

We watched the sunset colours transform on Mt. Dana and Mt. Gibbs before going down to 6300ft (1,920m) for dinner.

The wind was howling around our tent on the penultimate night.  When I stepped out of the tent for an early morning bathroom break, the sun was still behind the mountains, spreading a warm glow.  The campground was still asleep in the warm tents on that cold, windy morning.  I reached for the camera, then decided to capture the moment only with every fibre of my being instead.

I was feeling too sick to paint en plein air, so I made a quick sketch of the campground to paint later.

Clouds rolled in during the last day.  Low humidity joined high winds, turning it into a red alert day.  That meant it was too dangerous to light a campfire.

I was still not doing any better, so my dear husband talked me into getting a hotel room for our last night there.  We broke camp slowly during the day and spent the rest of the late afternoon revisiting a few places for photography.

We stopped one last time at Mt. Dana and Mt. Gibbs.  Sunlight was fading fast that day due to the clouds.  The mountains unexpectedly turned deep red for a very short time before turning into a dull evening grey.

Heightened altitude sickness put my body to the test this year.  However, spending beautiful days surrounded by the towering granite mountains and star-studded, cold nights by a campfire was worth every bit of it. 

I was standing alone in the middle of a field on a new moon night for this photo, soaking in the darkness and starlight around me.  I don’t remotely regret going.

Good thing we got the hotel, because my high fever returned that night and I lost my voice completely. Next day after breakfast I felt a little better.  We walked around Mono Lake before driving home.

High Sierra is such an amazing place. I am happy to be able to share just a few of the photos I took there with you.

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