Framedlight

The afternoon was getting long in the tooth when we arrived back from our Gaylor Lakes walk. We asked the ranger at the Park entrance where would be the best place to go for some sunset views and he said to go back to the Toluomne Meadows which we had been criss crossing all afternoon. I had wanted to photograph the sun going down behind the Cathedral Range but it was very disappointing, the sky remaining a dull yellow until it got completely dark. However, turning round I saw the Dana- Gibbs range lit a glowing red. These high mountains, Dana is 13,035 ft, are of different stock to the granite of Yosemite and have a red hue anyway and the sun was bringing out the best in them. The first picture is taken from near the Park entrance and the others from the meadows by the Toluomne River. It is getting progressively darker. I had a polariser on for the first shot and it has done something rather strange to the sky, but I quite like the effect. After the light had gone...

Having obtained petrol we thought a spot of lunch was in order, which we shared with glossy bright eyed Brewers blackbirds.  We had parked in a picnic spot in the meadows and after lunch walked a little way to see some soda springs which just bubble up from the ground. They are not hot but taste just like Vichy water. They stain the earth red and give strange greens to the Toluomne river, presumably from alga growth. Next to the springs are a number of wooden buildings. Around a portion of the springs an open topped shack was put up by John Baptiste Lembert who grazed goats in this area from 1885. John Muir liked to camp here and it was to this location he brought the magazine editor Robert Johnson to see the damage done by the sheep to the meadows. It was a meeting that was to bring about the inclusion of the large section surrounding the Tioga Road into Yosemite National Park. The wooden McCauley cabin was used by the Sierra Club until 1973 and the Parson...

There is no 'gas' station in Yosemite Valley, the nearest is at Crane Flat which you come to just after leaving the valley. We were terribly short of fuel, down to 1/4 tank which in a 3.8 litre gas guzzler is not good. After our relaxed leaving we got to the petrol station in high hopes only to be told they had no fuel and the nearest was in the Toluomne meadows on the Tioga Road a good 1 ½  hours away. If they had none (which the garage at Crane Flat thought highly likely) we would have to continue to Lee Vining, well out of the park and 2 hours away. We would be running on gas! What to do but carry on. The Tioga Road passes through high country and runs east to the Park's exit through a landscape of golden grass, pine trees and granite domes. There is a broad parking spot at Olmsted Point where there is a view over granite and glacial erratics, through Tenaya Canyon, past Clouds Rest to the north side of the Half Dome. You can walk on the rocky, gritty edges and get gr...

After our last night at Upper Pines Campsite in Yosemite Valley we packed up and left around 8.00am. The valley was frosty and quiet and we could not help but stop and wander in the meadows under Cathedral Rocks by the Merced River. To be joined by only some Mule Deer who grazed in the peace of the morning.

We arrived back from our Mist Trail walk mid afternoon and drove down to Curry Village to buy some souvenirs to take home. We then met up with Mairi's friends, Lily and Suzie. They had not been to Glacier Point and I wanted to take some sunset shots, so we set out in the car for the 40 minute or so ascent. There were a number of people already up there but it is possible to climb over the barriers at the top to get an unimpeded view down the valley. It was a good sunset and we were there until dusk, watching the light leave the face of half dome and the moon come up. To ring the changes there was a lady in a wedding dress being photographed. She must have been chilly. When it had become completely dark we went back to the campsite for a fire and some supper. This was our last day in the valley.