Banner Peak, Ansel Adams Wilderness, California, USA

© Michael DeYoung Photography/Tandem Stills + Motio

Banner Peak, California

The Ansel Adams Wilderness is home to granite peaks, gorges, lakes, and glaciers on the slopes of soaring mountains. This vast wilderness in the Sierra Nevada of California in the United States has over 930,000 square kilometres of trails, including sections of the John Muir and Pacific Crest trails, but perhaps the most impressive natural landscape within this region is Ritter Range.

Banner Peak, reflected here in the surface of Thousand Island Lake, is the second-tallest peak in Ritter Range. Towering at 3,945 metres, it is considered by many to be the most picturesque peak in the mountain range, with high vertical cliffs and three lakes at its base – Garnet Lake, Lake Ediza and the famous Thousand Island Lake. Capture the mountain in its most idyllic form from its northeast side, where the peak seems to be floating on the alpine Thousand Island Lake – named for the many small rocky islands that dot its surface.