Coming off yet another sunny and dry winter here in California, our weather has turned decidedly more active this summer. Whatever the cause — tropical storm remnants, building El Nino conditions, anomalous sea surface temperatures or just typical climate cycles — this is the wettest “dry season” I’ve experienced during 12 years living in the Bay Area. Month-to-date for July, many areas of the Sierra Nevada have received over 600% of their (typically meager) average precipitation.
With these weather conditions as a backdrop, my father and I decided to escape the busy house (my parents are on an extended visit from Michigan helping with baby number two) for a quick run out to Yosemite. Arriving in Tuolumne Meadows midday on Friday, a more substantial cloud deck than expected was socking in the high country. I had planned to do a sunset/overnight hike down to meet my father in the valley, but a solid downpour provided the final discouragement and we headed towards the east side seeking a break in the clouds.
As we entered Dana Meadows we did start to see some breaks in the clouds and a little fresh snow leftover from earlier in the week.
Visibility still wasn’t great around Mono Lake, but heading a little further south we were rewarded with a colorful sunset.
We shot the sunset then headed over to nearby Mammoth for a bite to eat while we waited for dark and to see if the forecasted clearing skies would take hold. The skies mostly cleared by midnight and in between naps I was able to take my first real stab at nightscape shooting. I ended up with a decent shot of the Milky Way over the Ritter Range. I’ll have to post separately about this image as it was my first time out with the Samyang 14mm lens and there are some interesting technical details.
In the morning we caught a nice sunrise around mono lake and then drove back up to Tuolumne where I took an abbreviated but strenuous early morning hike in the Cathedral Range to scope some future locations. Meeting back up with my father around noon, we decided to brave the crowds in the valley to see the waterfalls which would be in decent shape for July based on all the recent rainfall. Normally I would avoid Yosemite Valley on a July weekend at all costs, and this visit only served to reinforce that feeling. Traffic was terrible. But the water was flowing. Funny, after too many visits to Yosemite to count, this was the first time I’ve actually been to the base of Lower Yosemite Falls.
Back on the road, Berkeley to the east side and back in under 36 hours. For such a short mission I actually grabbed a number of worthwhile images. I’ll post the best of them to @jpkennyphoto on Instagram and jpkennyphoto on Facebook as I get a chance to process them.
All photographs copyright 2015 Joseph P Kenny.
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Edited Oct 21 2015: add affiliate links
