On the Pacific Crest Trail at an unnamed pass in the Sierra Nevada, California, about 7 trail miles south of Ebbetts Pass. Looking south. From a distance we thought someone was drying laundry, but these appear to be prayer flags, covered with writing in what I assume is Sanskrit (inset). Go figure--
We're in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness here, named for the Carson River and a rock formation called The Iceberg. The barbed-wire fences are still in use because cattle grazing was grandfathered in when the wilderness was established!
This pass doesn't look like much, but since it's on the Sierra crest it marks a major drainage divide. To the south and west streams flow generally westward, finally joining the San Joaquin and flowing out to the Pacific at San Francisco Bay. Streams flowing easterly, OTOH, eventually join the landlocked Carson River in the Great Basin, which ends at the Humboldt Sink about 120 miles east of here in Nevada.