And Ice

(click to see larger version)

So, a few hours after I dropped my mom off at the airport, I went over to my friend Donald's place and we headed off to Yosemite.in the Land Rover for a photo tour of Yosemite in the winter. I've always wanted to go there at this time of year. As we were driving up the Merced River valley, I lamented the lack of snow, but as we rose above the plains into Yosemite valley there was snow! And it was good. We got into the valley right around sundown, in time to take a few pictures. I like the above one of half dome in the snow. I should have more pix to show in coming days, but I have about 6.5GB to go through, counting the Death Valley pix. :-p There will probably be an annoying number of shots of Half Dome as it was a frequent subject.

On the morning of the second day there, we got up early to go shoot Half Dome and Yosemite Falls from the valley floor. It was so cool in both a literal and figurative sense. Temps were below 20 degrees. But it was really great to be out in the wilderness with just the sound of the falls to hear. We went back towards El Capitan and got some cool pictures in the woods right before El Cap.

(click for larger image)

That afternoon I hiked up part of the Yosemite Falls trail to Columbia Lookout and got some more nice shots of Half Dome. On the way back from dinner that night we saw a zillion stars on the way back to our rooms. It's so cool being away from civilization!

On the last day we got up before dawn again and drove past Curry Village to go to Mirror Lake. As we were making our way there, we heard coyotes calling. It was overcast out so it wasn't too too cold. After we finished up at Mirror Lake we had a nice breakfast and cleared out. Got some more nice shots on the way up to the Tunnel View on 120. Then it was time to head back to the Valley where the chilly, rainy weather seemed pretty warm in comparison to the past few days.