Tuesday, May 10, 2005

What a beautiful day! For this photographer it began on the valley floor where I finally captured an image I'd first spotted in February. On the south loop road, about halfway between Cathedral Rocks and the turn for El Capitan Bridge, there's a small hardwood tree on a sandbar in the Merced River. Its fresh new leaves are backlit in morning light, and something about it just appealed to me. The problem is (was) that there's no place to park anywhere near it. And you know my policy about hiking: if the number of footsteps exceeds the number of photographs, that's bad. (I broke that rule again later in the day, but that's another story...)

Anyway, today when I passed it, low-lying mist filtered the sunlight behind it creating an irresistable visual temptation, so I finally parked and took a hike to capture it. It was well worth the effort because in addition to marking that tree off my to-do list, I found tons of tiny images illuminated by the same early light in the forest nearby. The bigleaf maple buds at the top right were among them.

Now...about that hiking rule. Vernal and Nevada Falls were also on my to-do list, and they require a hike that's, at minimum, about a five-mile round trip. And in typical Yosemite fashion, it's all uphill. But the wonderful cool, sunny day (and that earlier short hike that produced good photo results) inspired me.

Long story short: I donned my lightweight rain gear and struck out for high ground on Mist Trail. Although the trip took around four hours (after which I ate a mid-afternoon lunch at Degnan's and headed back to the cabin), the images I found made the effort worthwhile. I'll also have to admit that hiking Mist Trail is such a wonderfully unique experience that I'm actually considering a return trip (for better afternoon light) later in the week after my lazy legs have recovered from this trip.

The rainbow image is at Vernal Fall and it was taken from the location that gave Mist Trail its name. I left the trail and climbed up to a less-damp location to get this one. I then continued to the top of Vernal where I joined dozens of other hikers to spread my wet gear out on the huge granite slab to dry off.

Beyond that, it was a short hop up to the photo location where I got the other waterfall shot of an absolutely raging Nevada Fall. The image with the trees and dark cliff background was back down Mist Trail; I liked the colors and shapes when compressed by a telephoto lens. I hope you do, too!

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