The white-barked trees closing in around the path are quaking aspen, and this grove is the reason to time this walk for late September if you possibly can — the whole west shore goes gold at once, and the reflection doubles it.
Two things to notice while you're inside it. First, the leaves: they're on flattened stems, which is why the least breath of wind sets the whole canopy trembling and whispering. That sound — locals just call it quaking — is the signature sound of the Eastern Sierra fall.
Second, look at the trunks and you'll see the 'eyes' — dark, eye-shaped scars where the tree shed its lower branches. A grove like this watching you pass is something people have remarked on for as long as people have walked here.
And a secret about what you're walking through: an aspen grove is usually ONE organism — the trunks are shoots off a single shared root system, which is why they all turn color together, as one creature, while the grove across the lake keeps its own schedule. Some aspen clones are among the oldest living things on Earth. You are, in a real sense, walking through one tree.
Photo: daryl_mitchell from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0