Phase 4 - Of Flats, Cliffs, Canyons and Domes Part 3

While at Snow Canyon we had to figure out the very last part of our trip.  We had an extra day on the schedule because we’d moved the two nights of camping and day trip to Yant Flat up in the schedule, so now there was a gap to be filled.  I tossed out doing Yant Flat again, or Cathedral Gorge in Nevada again, or stopping by the Alvord Desert in Oregon.  None of those options seemed quite right.  Then Ann said, “What if we headed the other direction, towards California?  Death Valley?”  I replied, “No, I’d like to do more than just a day there.”  “Well what about Yosemite?  Do you think the Tioga Road is still open?”  We checked on the internet and it was.  Our route home was settled.  

That still left us with a long, mad dash across Nevada.  The next morning was somewhat overcast so we weren’t too disappointed about not photographing another morning at Snow Canyon (being tired and sore from the previous long, strenuous day also helped in that decision too I guess, though I still don’t feel that we’re done with Snow Canyon yet).  The drive was a bit arduous, but we made good time and after stopping long enough at Mono Lake to decide we didn’t want to try to photograph sunrise there the next day (too many people!!!), we found a Forest Service campground along the Tioga Road outside the park that was about to be closed for the season, but was still open.

The next morning was a very early rise.  We had no clue about the Tioga Road itself, its condition or how fast you move along it.  We had our backup electronic maps on our iPad (California not having been on our original itinerary, we didn’t have our Yosemite paper maps), so we knew the stopping points, but that was about it.  It soon became apparent to me that we could make good time on the road, so I had a location in mind.  I told Ann I have a destination . . . I just wasn’t sure we would get there in time.  

You tell me, did we?

Well, just barely because we’d missed the earliest part of the pre-dawn light.  Talk about being anxious that you’d arrive too late.

Olmstead Point is one of those classic views in Yosemite, except from here you’re looking towards the Yosemite Valley from the north.  And the view you have is of Half Dome.  Like our first tip to Yosemite, I immediately fell in love with Half Dome and simply couldn’t not make it a prominent element in my images. 

In every way I could imagine.

While you could move along the pull-out to try and change the foreground a bit, there wasn’t much time to react to the changing light so it quickly boiled down to changing lenses to different focal lengths . . .

. . . and adapting to the changing light conditions.

It then became evident that once the sun really it, it would be nearly impossible to get a good photograph for awhile, so I returned to my original framing to try and capture Half Dome before it became too bright.

I’m glad I did.  Very quickly everything brightened and it was near-impossible to make images that wouldn’t either wash-out Half Dome or render the foreground in blackness.  Photographically, it was time to stop.  Plus, it was freezing cold and we were both frozen solid.  So we hopped back into Beast, and warmed ourselves up with hot coffee and a hot breakfast (thank goodness Beast has a microwave). 

We then had to decide how we were going to spend our day.  Ultimately, we decided that we would drive back to near the east entrance, and then take our time driving the entire length of the Tioga Road westward, and then turn around and drive back.  We would either be done after making the full loop, or we would turn around wherever we’re at and leave the park if it got too late.

So we headed east until we hit a turn around just before the park entrance.  It was a lovely spot adjacent to Dana Fork.  It didn’t take me long to find something to photograph, so we pulled out our gear and started exploring the area.

For the first long while I was in a small section of Dana Fork that had iced up.  I’ve always wanted to find ice frozen in a creek that I could photograph.  And despite the fact that I had to have my my legs (tripod and human) straddled on in-stream rocks  and the shore bank, my wish was fulfilled.

There were plenty of opportunities for me to play with abstract compositions, but I tried to limit myself to only a few shots.

I finally decided that enough was enough, I should look for more conventional images.  The area where I photographed the above images is located in the lower right corner of the image below.  

We eventually continued down the road, pulling off at a stop we’d noted on our way back from Olstrom Point.  There is a stretch where Dana Fork paralleled the road and flowed over and through some rock outcroppings.  There was a tight pull-off on the right side of the road, but having a shorter sprinter paid off - Beast fit!

I returned to the ice theme, even though the ice was quite different here, and was quickly melting under the sun while I was photographing it!

My landscape images weren’t very successful, but it was a beautiful location and the various eddies the creek made as it flowed through and around the rock shelves were fascinating.  However, photographing the place was difficult given the sunlight that worked its way through the trees.

We stopped a few more times while continuing along the Tioga Road.  Anyone who has studied Ansel Adam’s photographs or driven the Tioga Road would recognize the names - Tuolumne Meadows, Tanya Lake, Olmstead Point . . . .  Even more locations were familiar due to Ansel’s images.  However, we didn’t make any photographs.  I attribute that in part to the new experience - several of the places were so impressive, but didn’t call out for photographs that were not mere tourist photos of the place.  Others were full of people (Olmstead Point on our second stop, well, we walked out among the crowds and had a good look-see again, and turned right around . . . to make a fresh pot of coffee for the rest of the day!).  Also the sun was rising, and with its sharpness letting us know we were at altitude.  We knew that this day was likely to be more of a scouting day, and we were satisfied (and successful) at that - I’m sure we’ll be back and spending time here.  So we didn’t feel rushed.

On the west-bound drive, I noticed a couple of locations that looked promising . . . if the light improved.  We continued the leisurely driving to our turn around spot - the Tuolumne Grove, which we’ve hiked before.  After taking a short break, we headed back.  One of my noted spots - a waterfall, turned out to not be a great site (perhaps if more water were flowing), so we continued on.  And when we got to Siesta Lake, we knew we had timed it right.

Then again, so had other photographers.  There were a couple of older photographers (ok, our age and a bit older it appeared), who were taking their time at an area Ann and I knew would be interesting given the light.  Since one of the guys was also a Fuji shooter, a medium format Fuji GFX (again I was thinking, “That Bastard!”, out of jealousy of course) we didn’t get too frustrated.  And as they finished up, and moved their gear into the woods, the Fuji guy walked by us to grab their lunch.  He stopped to chat and seemed a pleasant guy.  He was a professional photographer from the Bay Area and and his friend had started a trip that would take them out to Moab to photograph.  We catted a bit about our trip and, of course, Beast as a photography vehicle.  Then he headed down to have lunch.

For us, that meant they were no longer in our spot.  Once they’d started eating, we went at it.

The light and the grasses were spectacular!

The ironic thing was, earlier in the day when we’d stopped to go to the restroom, as I returned to Beast Ann was looking at how the sunlight from the rear was playing with the grasses and she asked, “How do you photograph that?”  My response was, “Well, why don’t you find out?”  “Here, right beside the parking lot?”  “Yeah, why not.  It’s here to practice with, the light is right, there’s no pressure to make an incredible image . . . given where we’re at, so you can just experiment and figure out what works and what doesn’t.  Because you would rather do that experimenting now than when it counts with a lovely subject.”  I’d love to say I was prescient, but I’m not.  I just know that’s the way things too often work - wonderful but difficult conditions come at you when you’re under the gun to make a great photograph.  So when you get a good chance to practice or experiment - do it.

Let’s just say that both of our experimenting with back-lit grasses near the pit toilet paid off!

We wandered around a good portion of Siesta Lake, and for once the dark shadows of the clear-sky daylight helped improve the images.

We took our time (in part because people were coming and going, in part because it was such a relaxing place to be).  And as you spend time in places, you find new things you hadn’t noticed initially.

We eventually wound up at the far side of the lake where the trail ended, and where a couple of ladies had set up their hammocks to . . . take a siesta.

We slowly worked our way back to Beast where we made one final image.

Definitely another place to come back to.

The rest of the drive back along the Tioga Road was lovely.  The sun seemed to be quickly lowering (or perhaps we’d been at Siesta lake longer than we’d thought) and it seemed that the arrangement of the grand Yosemite landscape features started casting broad shadows across areas we’d thought might be interesting later in the day, rendering those areas less interesting visually.  So we enjoyed the drive and the lovely light, pleased that Ann had thought of ending our trip here.

And that’s how the trip for all intents and purposes ended.  

We decided that we’d had such a lovely day that it really couldn’t be beat for a last day of photography, so as we drove out of the park, we headed north towards home.  We still had quite a bit of driving to get us to Susanville, where we spent our second night in a hotel this trip, and we were back home by noon on Saturday.

The end of our 2018 Grand Fall Adventure!