We checked the forecast after dinner last night and put off any decision on whether we would stay or leave today. We woke up to a gorgeous day with clear blue skies. Although we considered shooting for a couple of hours and then packing up to leave in the late morning, it was too nice a day to leave early. We stopped at Sentinel Bridge to shoot Yosemite Falls across Cooks Meadow, Yosemite Falls reflected in the Merced River, and the fog streaming through the Ponderosa Pines.
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| Yosemite Falls Reflected in the Merced | Morning Fog |
The beach at Housekeeping was the only photo stop on our trip that had no other human tracks. We had the area to ourselves with pristine snow.
We continued our quest for Half Dome images in Stoneman Meadow near Curry Village. We found a couple of areas where the snow wasn't completely trampled and shot the Royal Arches, Basket Dome, and Washington Column. Then we noticed an area across the road that promised good reflections. The only problem was that we had to walk all the way around the reflecting area to get down to a place to shoot. A half mile later and after several surprise, "posthole" incidents, we reached the area we wanted to shoot. The early morning lighting was very good for Washington's Column, the Royal Arches, and Basket Dome, but the face of Half Dome was only partially lit. Regardless of the images, it was a great place to be on a Saturday morning.
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After lunch, we drove the western end of the valley loop with stops at Valley View, Bridal Veil Moraine, and finally sunset at Tunnel View. The short winter days severely limit the number of places we can shoot in a day; especially in a deep valley. Valley View had some interesting light, but there was even less snow than yesterday. We transferred Bridal Veil moraine to tomorrow's list because the afternoon light was already gone by the time we got there. And then there was Tunnel View. I've been going to Yosemite for 43 years, and I've never seen so many people at Tunnel View as we saw tonight. It was absurd! And worst of all, the sunset light never happened. Thick clouds at the west end of the valley, shut down the path for the light to pass through the gap to reach El Capitan. Watching the photographers was very entertaining, but there was a severe shortage of good images.
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