An unbelievably great week. Lousy weather had been threatened, but it really did not get in the way at all. Monday we arrived to clear skies, in the afternoon. Tom skated at the outdoor rink while I went off and did some shooting. I decided this week that I am a biathlete - I hike and shoot! I joined a tailgate party at the El Capitan picnic area, where we all waited in hope that the sun would light up horsetail falls with red light. A bit late for that by about a week, but we all had a great time waiting and talking. Met people from all over.Tuesday we hiked for 6 hours, first to Mirror Lake, then over to Happy Isles and on to the Mist Trail, up to the Vernal Falls view. Little snow and no ice on the trails. It spit rain at times but nothing uncomfortable. Only tucked the lenses away once against the rain. The granite, the mosses and lichens, the tall trees, and the sound and beauty of the water flowing everywhere was enough to take your breath away. I always forget how beautiful Yosemite is, which just makes it possible to rediscover it anew. I loved shooting the valley with the 17-40 wide angle. It did a great job of drinking in whole vistas of granite and mist.
Wednesday it did finally start to rain. We managed to get a very long morning to early afternoon hike in first, mostly in the area of Yosemite falls. We were hiking against the valley walls, and under the trees we heard some very noisy woodpecker activity and stopped to bird for a half hour or so. Stellar Jays jumping all over, a Northern Flicker, Acorn Woodpeckers, and a Downy Woodpecker. We went back to our room when the rain started to come down, but within an hour or so the rain turned to fat white wet snowflakes. As an adventure we decided to walk to dinner in the snow and walk back after in the snow and dark. with flashlights. Great fun. The snowy twilight was gorgeous. Dinner was delicious. The walk back was very interesting and we only got a little bit lost, but figured it out short of making an encore trip to Mirror Lake!
Thursday we woke up to about five inches of wet snow on everything, and misty wreathes around the top of every mountain. The entire valley was lit up with a bright white snowy light, amplified with sunshine and white mist. We had another fabulous hike, this time staying more towards the center of the valley rather than hugging the hills. Where the trees had previously shielded us from soft rain, they now were more likely to dump snow and ice chunks on your head, so it was better to walk through the meadows, and along the Merced.
Sad to leave, but....so thoroughly exhausted that it helped kick our butts in gear to drive home. Also wanted to escape while the slush on the roads was still slush and not ice.
Building up a collection of photos from the trip in this set on Flickr:
No comments:
Post a Comment