Glacier Point
It was approaching 100 again today, so we drove up to Glacier Point in the late afternoon to escape the heat and see one of the best views in Yosemite. We reached Washburn Point about 6:00 as the light was beginning to warm a little, and there were even a couple of tiny clouds in the sky. Clouds have been completely absent on this trip, and our images have been pretty blah as a result.
Washburn Point towers over Yosemite Valley, and the view includes Half Dome on the left side and the Cathedral Range of Mountains are on the right. Below the point is the valley that includes Vernal and Nevada Falls. Both falls have enough volume to be impressive even from this vantage point nearly 2,000 feet above them. As we looked down at the falls, Carol and I reminisced about hiking the Mist Trail to Vernal and then continuing up to Nevada Falls before returning down the John Muir Trail. It was a long day's hike, but we didn't have any problems. Today, we wouldn't even consider the hike to just Vernal Falls.
Even with a few clouds, the lighting was so flat that I limited my shooting to practicing photographing panoramas. Washburn Point is a great place for that.
We continued on to Glacier Point, but the lighting was even worse there. I didn't even shoot from the point, but we walked over to a viewing area near the store where we could sit down. After an hour or so, the haze dissipated, and we had some warmer light on Half Dome. The trade-off was that the clouds were now gone. It's just not our year to get good images at Glacier Point. We've been very lucky in the past. I guess the odds are evening out this year.
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