Surrounded by posters of Hawaiian sunsets, Alaskan cruise ships and ancient ruins, she sits alone, neatly tucked away in her little cubicle at the far end of the building. Memories ripple through my mind of the snow-crested peaks that tower above the sage-covered earth along Hwy. 395. I approach the travel section. “Going to Vegas?” she says. “Too late for that now,” I say. I sit, we talk, I leave the building . . . reservations in hand.

And so, Sierra Run II was born. It had been almost a year since I made the run from Tahoe to Bishop and over the White Mountains into the Nevada Desert. I had hiked through the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, discovered lost ghost towns and stumbled across some of the most beautiful mountain scenery I had ever seen. But nothing could compare with the breath-taking views of the Eastern Sierras seen from the Sierra Overlook along White Mountain Road. It was like some unknown force was calling me back there, beckoning me to return and shot it again. Visions of the perfect shot awaited capture, somewhere on the cliffs high above Owens Valley.

I arrived at Tahoe and was greeted by the light of a rising moon. Spring had taken its toll on the snow pack, leaving the slopes of Heavenly glazed with patches of melting snow. At a bend in the road, I stood in shadows and straightened the tripod on the uneven ground. The lunar spirits had granted me access to their private kingdom, where the earth and sky lay merged in beauty, caressed by the light of a Heavenly Moon.