The first colors of spring in Owens Valley are reddish. Brick reds, rusts, oranges, maroons, glowing out of grey coyote willow, white alders, red birch, black willow nests. I have been fishing where Owens River flows down through a gorge carved by its waters into the pink tuff of the volcanic table land, from the Gorge Power Plant to Pleasant Valley Dam. Fishing buddy Winford provides a little red wagon in which we haul our jackets, tackle boxes, poles and snacks along the three mile road cut into the rocky eastern side, looking into the water below for a likely spot, then scrambling and sliding down to river's edge to fish. Mornings were sunny and pleasant, but one afternoon the wind funneled down into the gorge and blew the water upstream in waves -- I felt like I was fishing at the seashore.
The Lake by Pleasant Valley Dam
Winford resting near the power plant at the north end of Pleasant Valley Reservoir
Along the river in the Gorge
Three pictures of reddish spring by the river below the dam; a fisherman's path through the willow, a ditch gate to direct water through a pasture, and a willow chewed by beavers:
