August 10th, 2026
I’ve been planning all summer to get out for a night or two of Milky Way photography again. I really enjoyed the workshop in Arches last spring, and wanted to see if I could improve upon my composition and post-processing skills with a new set of photographs.
Unfortunately, I never seemed to be free to travel during the new moon, or I always seemed to be too tired for late evening photography when I was in dark sky locations like Sequoia National Park. The next thing I knew, it was August – I was running out of time. I decided when I returned from Colorado that I was going to find a reasonable place to go on the 10th, which was the exact date for the new moon. The question was….where to go. I wanted to get a reasonably interesting landscape, maybe not as spectacular as Arches, but perhaps with a nice lake or mountains for the foreground. Oh yeah, and I really did not want to drive very far, requiring camping or a long drive back home at 3AM.
I first headed up US-50 to check out Wrights Lake in the Sierra, hoping the Milky Way would be in a position to reflect off the lake. I also wanted to check out Dark Lake, a short drive north of Wrights, which seemed promising in terms of location. I did this during the day, in case you were wondering – I have an application, PhotoPills, which magically shows the position of planets, stars or the Milky Way, at any location, at any date and time. Pretty amazing. You hold up your phone in the direction you would be photographing from, and the application superimposes for example, the Milky Way as it would appear at that time. You can than swipe to change the time, and see how that astronomical feature would appear.
Wrights Lake is a relatively short drive from where I live – about a 90 minute drive, with the last bit on a rough but paved road. It is a state recreation area – nice place for kayaking and paddleboarding with camping spots and picnic tables which can be reserved ahead of time. I was hoping to find a picnic spot on the north shore of the recreation part of the lake, so that I would have a clear view of the sky looking South. After parking the car, I hiked along the path, trying my best to avoid a picnic group with very large mean looking dogs, and found what appeared to be a good spot to set up my tripod on the 10th. I pulled out my phone, brought up the PhotoPills application and found out that I really needed to be on the East shore of the lake which is all private property. Bummer.
I moved on to the other location, Dark Lake, which is a short drive down a very narrow, one lane road. Beautiful spot but almost all of the shoreline is private property. The view would have been very limited from the one spot I could shoot from. Scratch Dark Lake from the list. I really did not feel like negotiating that road at midnight, and then taking the long road back to the highway.
My next, and only other choice was along a road heading up to the Ice House Reservoir, about 14 miles west of where I was. This spot, named the Ice House Observation Point 1, was listed as one of the best dark sky locations in the Sacramento region, and appears to be a favorite for star gazers. It was on the way back home along US-50, but I had nothing better to do the next few days, and saved the excitement for later in the week. I lead a very exciting life these days. I had seen photos of this site and it did not appear to be too photogenic. There was a concrete divider wall at the start of the field, which limited parking, and what looked like a rusted crane in the middle of the field. Meh. The view to the south was not as restricted horizontally as Wrights Lake, but there was still the problem that much of the Milky Way would be blocked. But still, it was better than Wrights Lake. I was not overly thrilled with the limited parking and rusting crane, so I headed down to the second observation point, which for some reason, was indicated as closed on Google Maps. This turned out to be a better choice – a very large, open field, no wall, unlimited space for parking, and no rusting crane. This spot was also a on a small side road, so there would be less road traffic. Bright headlights and long exposure astrophotography do not work well together.
OK, let’s move on and fast forward to the evening of the 10th. Sunset started around 7:30, with full darkness around 9 or so. I planned to get to the observation point by 7:30’ish so I could find a good spot to set the tripod, get my camp chair out, and settle in to wait for the stars to appear.
As expected, I was the only one there. Cool. Unless a bear shows up. After finding my spot, another car pulled up, and out came four older guys (younger than me), who proceeded to wander off into the bushes, looking for snakes. Seriously. I asked what types and what would they do if they found some. It turns out they are reptile collectors, and used to come up to this site years back, when the highway department maintained a road salt shed on the open space. A funny group of guys….no snakes though, so they went off to search another area. That was the last car I saw that evening until I left.
OK, enough blathering about reptiles and salt sheds. I started shooting once the first star appeared to the west, looking towards the glow of Sacramento. Pretty soon, I could make out the Milky Way, and soon after, it was dark enough to make out what appeared to be a bright section, possibly the core. As the sky became completely dark, by 9:45, the sky was beautiful – I did see a few meteors, but I think the Perseids was to the North, and I was focused more on the Milky Way as it moved from SE to SW across the horizon. I did snap a few star photos to the North for the fun of it – the Big Dipper was really clear. I also saw some Starlink satellites pass by to the North as well – never seen them before.
The chair came in handy in the dark – once I turned off my head lamp, the only light was from the camera screen. Kind of creepy.
I shot around 60 photos, a low record for me, experimenting with various setting on the camera. Something I never had a chance to during the Arches workshop. I also just sat back in my camp rocking chair and stared at the sky a lot. Very relaxing, and incredibly quiet. It was cool enough to wear a down sweater, so there were no mosquitoes. Or snakes. Or bears. About 11:15, the Milky Way was fading as it neared the glow in the West from Sacramento, so I decided to start the drive home. There were quite a few cars parked at the main observation point – I think I made the right choice.
And finally, here’s the best of the batch – it takes a while to edit them. I may add a few more. My expectations had been pretty low for this outing, so I’m not too disappointed in the results. It was good practice, and I enjoyed sitting out in the dark, watching the Milky Way slide by – beats sitting at home alone watching TV.
I get one more shot at night photography in September, when I meet some friends at Yosemite Park. I’m getting there a day before my friends, which happens to be the new moon. I intend to head up to Glacier Point, which I believe is one of the best places for night photography. We are staying close to the tunnel view, so I might be able to try that one out as well.
Two more weeks and I’ll be in Kodiak Alaska. I’d better get back to training. I have to be faster than one person in the group.
Peace.
