Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. – John Muir
Day 2 in Yosemite… This would be a very long day out indeed.
The alarm went off at 4:30 AM, I brewed coffee for the road and showered to start the fresh day. We had an hours drive to Yosemite National Park and a bit more to reach the location I wished to start photographing at first light.
Retrieving the mental note that I had filed the day before, I had decided to begin at Cathedral Beach along the Merced River. Daylight breaks long before the first rays of sunlight begin to fall on the towering granite walls of The Valley. For perspective, El Capitan rises 3,600 feet from the valley floor. I shot a few images here, but was too anxious to wait on the sunlight. After all I had captured some pretty good ones here the day before. So I decided to move on searching for another location.
We stopped at Swinging Bridge (which doesn’t actually swing) and got some nice serene images with the tops of the cliffs just starting to catch the sun. After a quick stop in a meadow to photograph the first rays hitting the top of Cathedral Rocks, we circled back around on the road to another spot I felt had potential.
I could be wrong, but I think this area is referred to as Sentinel Beach. Here I found exactly what I had been looking for… “The Holy Trinity” Absolutely amazing! Along this small streatch of the Merced River were views of The Three Brothers, Cathedral Rocks and El Capitan… and all could be composed reflecting in the water!
I got into “The Zone” and entered a transcendental state as I worked the edge of the river for different compositions… the fall color here was beautiful! I had lost all sense of time in “My Happy Place” and was grinning from ear to ear. It was one of those times that unexplainably fills your soul, dusts out the cobwebs, and recharges your batteries! Then… the peace was broken. The sound of a man’s voice calling my name. Startled, I thought, who do I know that would be out here? For a moment, it didn’t make sense. I turned and replied… “Yes”. He said, “Your friend Harmony is looking for you. She said it had been over an hour since she last saw you”. I smiled and replied with a “thank you”, as I folded up the tripod legs and scrambled back towards the car meeting up with Harmony about halfway.
We then decided it was time to drive the loop around again and go to Bridalveil Falls. But as we passed under El Capitan, we decided to stop and make the hike up to the base of The Nose climbing route. I couldn’t help but ponder the thought that we were following the footsteps of the greatest rock climbers the world has ever known… such as Warren Harding, Yvon Chouinard, Royal Robbins, Tom Frost, Jim Bridwell, and the list goes on, to the more recent amazing accomplishments of Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell.
As always, there were climbers to be seen on the face. And as we approached the base, we could hear them calling out to their climbing partners. There were a couple of ropes fixed and anchored straight up as far as the naked eye could see. And a pile of ropes and gear laid at the base. Looking at just the start of this route, I could hardly imagine how this was even humanly possible. I took several hand held photos of the climbers and the face of El Cap, but they simply do not capture the sheer scale.
So off the Bridalveil Falls we went… At this time of the year, it is the only waterfall in The Valley that still flows. Albeit, not the thundering falls it is earlier in the year. Harmony made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and packed up some trail food for us and we started the short hike to the viewing area.
It was a beautiful site from the viewing area, but we could see people up above and decided to try and get closer to the falls. There was no real trail and mainly consisted of scrambling around huge slippery boulders while trying to not fall in the water. Harmony without a pack managed to climb up ahead faster than I could with my heavy camera pack and gear. I reached a spot that required a long stem from a shakey log over deeper water to a precarious rock and decided I did not want to risk the fall in. So I waited at a safe location and watched Harmony as she climbed higher and higher.
She returned after a short time and said that she had found some beautiful smaller waterfalls and that I had to come check it out. She, fortunately, was feeling more surefooted than I and offered to carry my camera pack passed the sketchy spot. After scrambling up through the boulders for several hundred more feet, we reached the lower falls. A beautiful little location with some nice flat boulders to sit/lay on while we soaked in views and sunshine! I, of course, worked the area with my camera. I added a 6-stop Neutral Density filter to my 17mm wide angle lens and captured some great silky smooth waterfall images. It was amazing to watch the main falls higher up as the cascading water was blown by the wind in feathery angel wing patterns. Truly mesmerizing! After a nice long break and our lunch, we made our way back down through the boulders and left this little slice of heaven.
After Bridalveil Falls, I wanted to catch Half Dome in the afternoon sun when the light falls on its north face. We drove back towards Yosemite Village and found a spot to park. Then made the short walk to Sentinel Bridge for a classic view of Half Dome reflecting in the river. It was picture postcard perfect with the autumn color and wispy clouds!
With the afternoon getting on, we needed to start making our way back to the western side of The Valley and my chosen location for sunset, Tunnel View. We arrived at Tunnel View a little early for golden hour as I had heard how crowded it can get and wanted to make sure I had a spot for my tripod claimed. This is the classic Ansel Adams view after all!
I shot nearly 100 images over a period of an hour and a half as the sun set… With the shadows slowly creeping up The Valley walls, the light hues changed from daylight to the warmth of golden hour to a fiery orange as the last rays fell on the upper reaches of El Capitan, and then settled into soft pink as darkness approached. I found it extremely difficult to narrow down the images to just a few for this post as all the images I took there are fantastic in their own right. You will find I have included 24 images so you can get a feel for how the light was constantly changing and you can decide on your favorites.
Once the light was finally gone, it was time to make the hour+ drive back to the hotel and get rested for our third and final day in Yosemite. But due to the one way road, we had to drive back into The Valley a bit to the midway turnaround. This brought us back to the El Capitan Meadow where, in the darkness, we could see the lanterns/headlamps of all the groups of climbers on the face of El Cap. It was like looking at the constellations, there were sooooo many! Harmony counted no less than 25 separate groups of lights! I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stop and photograph the scene, unfortunately I slightly missed focus in the dark and the images are a bit soft. I have included the best one of them as a parting shot.
Again in the words of John Muir…
“I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”
