California, 26th October, Yosemite from sunrise to sunset

Another early morning start and this time to Sentinel Bridge in the valley for dawn. I realise now that a map of the valley might be useful. We were staying at the Upper Pines camp site so it was not far to Sentinel Bridge which is shown on the lower map.We got there early and watched as the light started to pick out Half Dome and reflections could be seen in the Merced river from the bridge.

It was not an explosive sunrise, but the gentle light was pretty and picked out the golden colours of the autumn trees. Here are views in both directions from the bridge.

Sentinel Bridge lies to the lefthand side of Cooks meadow where the grasses were frosted and covered with a low lying mist. There is an elm tree there which I did know about before I went, but had not realised how photographed it is. In its fall colour it caught the light of the rising sun perfectly and was surrounded by a bevy of photographers and tripods. They run short workshops from the Ansel Adams gallery and I guess this is their first point of call in the morning. I took a multitude of shots from far and near and by the time we left the sky was completely blue and the sun well up.

Our plan was to drive to the start of a walk to May Lake which is off the Tioga Road on the eastern side of the park. We stopped by Cathedral Rocks and the Merced River at Valley View where there were reflections of El Capitan and mist was still lying over the river.

You have to drive west on Big Oak Flat Road (named during the gold rush), before the route swings east onto the Tioga Road (see top map). The vista flattenened out and there were dramatic low lying clouds in the distance.

The whole day was subverted by a signpost to Tuolumne Grove, a stand of giant sequoia trees we thought would be a stone's throw from the road. Instead it was a 2 hour march down and then steeply back up to see around 6 sequoias, including a dead one which had been cut to allow cars to drive through it. (This seemed to be a tourist attraction as a hole has also been cut through a tree in Mariposa Grove for the same purpose). We saw parts of the forest that had been burned, sequoia seeds will only germinate in clear forest floor. The sequoias themselves are protected from fire by their thick fibrous bark and even though parts of the trunk may be burnt out they seem to survive. I took some very unsuccessful photographs of these trees which I have not included here as I made better ones later in Sequoia National Park. I was impressed by the subtle colours in the burnt forest, pinks, golds, greys and blacks.

A walk to May Lake would now take too long so instead we stopped by Siesta Lake which lies right next to the Tioga Road, where we had some lunch and a walk. It was very cold up there and there was still ice on some corners of the lake, even though the sun was shining brilliantly.

We needed to get back as Mairi was expecting a couple of friends who she knew from university and who happened to be staying in Yosemite at the same time, to visit our camp. We also wanted to have a shower, as we had not had the opportunity since leaving San Francisco and we had found out that we could use the showers down the road at Curry Camp.

However I had to stop to take a picture of dogwoods glowing in the forest.

Lily and Susie arrived at camp and the girls offered to make dinner and light a fire while I scooted on up the valley to Tunnel View where there promised to be a better sunset than the night before. Indeed there was, the light seeming to emanate from within El Capitan. On getting back to the camp a warden came round to tell us that there was a black bear in the camp who was a repeat offender, and that we should make sure everything was locked away in the bear box before going to sleep. If bears raid human camps for food they will be caught in a bear trap, a sort of tank where they are lured in with bait, then taken to an isolated part of the park and released. If they come back more than twice they are shot and I did fancy I heard gun shot later that evening. Autumn must be a tricky time for bears as they try to put on weight before the winter hibernation.