hiking

Year of Yosemite (YOY) – Day 178 (An Icon with no Makeup – Half Dome)

Jeff

Half Dome from the Mirror Lake Trail

Half Dome is just another mountain when viewed from the Mirror Lake Trail

It is a strange feeling to have read much about something over a long period time and to compile a mental image of what that thing would actually look like “in person” and then to finally see it before you. It might be something akin to seeing a movie star while out-and-about doing chores and thinking how much different they look in the supermarket. That was part of the experience I had when visiting Yosemite and getting to view the major attractions from many different angles.

In the picture above, Half Dome works hard to make its presence felt among the other mountains surrounding Mirror Lake. If you knew no better, you would probably not be very impressed. Much of the awe these landmarks inspire is based on context, i.e. how they play off of the surrounding beauty in a particular area.

To be continued…

 
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.

 

JBRish.com originally published this post
*All photographs Copyright by Jeffrey B. Ross with all rights reserved.

 
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.

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Year of Yosemite (YOY) – Day 177 (Finding DaVinci at Hetch Hetchy)

Jeff

Butterfly on wildflower

Butterfly on one of a number of yellow wildflowers (perhaps Arnica nevadensis) © Jeffrey B. Ross

The photograph above was taken during our hike at Hetch Hetchy, Yosemite National Park. The day was overcast and it had rained a bit prior to our arrival at the park and also a little more during our stay. With the rain and the cooler temperatures, the wildflowers were still abundant around the reservoir.

Being surrounded by the wildflowers and the overwhelming natural beauty of the area brings to mind the quotation above (repeated below for clarity):

“Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous – Leonardo DaVinci

 
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.

 

JBRish.com originally published this post
*All photographs Copyright by Jeffrey B. Ross with all rights reserved.

 
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.

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Meta Data – Day 177 YOY – Year of Yosemite
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Year of Yosemite (YOY) – Day 176 (Merced River Early Morning)

Jeff

Merced River Morning

Morning sun shining through on the Merced River

This is one of my favorite pictures of the Merced River. If you are hiking anywhere in Yosemite Valley, there is little chance you can escape crossing the Merced River at one point or another. My bet is that you will find it a constant companion as you hike the various valley trails as it meanders through most of the scenic areas of Yosemite Valley.

This photograph wasn’t too far from El Capitan and the light was a very pretty color. The reflections, the various hues of green and the water’s calm add to the beauty of the river.

 
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.

 

JBRish.com originally published this post
*All photographs Copyright by Jeffrey B. Ross with all rights reserved.

 
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.

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Meta Data – Day 176 YOY – Year of Yosemite

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Year of Yosemite (YOY) – Day 175 (Trees Just Want to Survive)

Jeff

Trees throw roots out to survive

Trees take hold among the rocky hills of Yosemite

It never ceases to AMAZE ME how trees (and other plants) find toe holds in the most unlikely places and manage to grow, if not thrive, at least for a while. Among the multitude of trees we walked past on our hikes, many of them managed to spread their roots out wherever they could make them fit.

In this photo you can see how there is a series of roots in the bottom, right-hand quadrant that wind through the pathways left by parting rocks and tumble over them to gain and maintain a foothold.

It is difficult to know which came first, the roots of this tree or the large rocks and boulders. The fact that the root appears to be growing on top of some of the rocks probably indicate that the stones must have preceded the growth of the root.

Surface roots often provide an obstacle course as it seems they try to “nip at” the toes of hikers as they walk by.

 
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.

 

JBRish.com originally published this post
*All photographs Copyright by Jeffrey B. Ross with all rights reserved.

 
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.

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Meta Data – Day 175 YOY – Year of Yosemite

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Year of Yosemite (YOY) – Day 174 (Lembert Dome Trail – Panorama 8/8)

Jeff

A panorama taken from the top of Lembert Dome

The panorama from the edge of Lembert Dome highlights several key features of the area

After arriving on the very top of the dome and taking in the 360 degree view, I couldn’t help, but try my hand at taking some panoramas. I like this one in particular because of the way the tip of the dome provides some perspective.

In the small view on your browser, the river in the background just beyond the tip of the dome is hard to see, but it meanders through the meadow at that point and was interesting to see as it pointed the way to the mountains off to the right.

(To see a larger view of the Panorama, click HERE)

Of course just to the left of the edge of the dome, in the distance, is Cathedral Peak which I have highlighted in several other posts. You can see a better picture of Cathedral Peak HERE.

 
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.

 

JBRish.com originally published this post
*All photographs Copyright by Jeffrey B. Ross with all rights reserved.

 
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.

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Meta Data – Day 174 YOY – Year of Yosemite

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Capture date: June 7, 2016
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Nikon D3300

 

Year of Yosemite (YOY) – Day 173 (Lembert Dome (7/8) – Looking Northeast)

Jeff

Looking northeast from the side of Lembert Dome

Looking northeast from the side of Lembert Dome

It was somewhat of a scramble to get to the very top of Lembert Dome, but not too difficult for those who have an average sense of balance and dexterity (IMHO). Once nearing the top, I stepped to the sides of the dome to take in the views from those aspects. There were peaks and mountains everywhere.

**NOTE** If there are members of your hiking party that do not feel comfortable going to the very top of the dome, there are a couple of ledge areas where they can wait and have a snack and still enjoy much of the beautiful views.

One point I like to make, and you can feel free to disagree with me, is that people should not have to be coerced, cajoled or prodded to traipse to an area if they are not comfortable doing so. Everyone knows their personal comfort levels and I have witnessed some bad scenes in places like Zion National Park’s Angels Landing!

As you can see in the photo above, there were still some remaining patches of snow that were a light shade of gray. There was still ample room to navigate around those areas and if need be, the snow was soft and could be walked upon.

Two days ago, I showed a view of the other side of Lembert Dome (northwest) which I think was a prettier view. You can see that post HERE.

 
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.

 

JBRish.com originally published this post
*All photographs Copyright by Jeffrey B. Ross with all rights reserved.

 
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.

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Meta Data – Day 173 YOY – Year of Yosemite

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Year of Yosemite (YOY) – Day 172 (Lembert Dome (6/8) – The End In Sight)

Jeff

Near the top of Lembert Dome

After much hiking, we see the trail’s terminus

It was quite a hike and as we climbed higher and higher we began to become invigorated. Nothing helps to generate more energy after a substantial hike than seeing what is potentially the end of the trail; reaching your goal.

We have had experiences when, from a distance, what looks like the end turns out to be a saddle and just a stop along the way. This time, however, we were very near the end. There was a saddle of sorts near the very top of the dome and those less inclined waited there.

It was only a short distance from the saddle to the very tip of Lembert Dome. This picture was taken just before the final ascent to the top. There were bands of snow on the sides of the dome.

 
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.

 

JBRish.com originally published this post
*All photographs Copyright by Jeffrey B. Ross with all rights reserved.

 
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.

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Meta Data – Day 172 YOY – Year of Yosemite

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Year of Yosemite (YOY) – Day 171 (Lembert Dome (5/8) Looking Northwest)

Jeff

The Tuolumne river in the distance

From Lembert Dome, the Tuolumne river can be seen in the distance

After ascending to the top of the Lembert Dome and walking around to take in all of the views and perhaps doing a bit of whirling, I focused on the mountains to the west. In the picture above, you can see how far they stretched. Also in view is the Tuolumne river meandering gracefully at the base of the mountains.

Based on my previous experiences, I am certain there are prominent features and points of interest captured in the above view of which I am not even aware, but what I did realize is that this was a beautiful scene!

 
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.

 

JBRish.com originally published this post
*All photographs Copyright by Jeffrey B. Ross with all rights reserved.

 
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.

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Meta Data – Day 171 YOY – Year of Yosemite

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Year of Yosemite (YOY) – Day 170 (Lembert Dome from the Woods 4/8)

Jeff

Lembert Dome could be seen periodically as we hiked

Lembert Dome as seen from the trail as we hiked

From time-to-time, we could garner glimpses of the dome as we hiked. In the picture above, we could see a section of the top of the dome. Of course we couldn’t be too sure which exact wall we were viewing, but it was gratifying to see it getting larger and closer as we hiked up the hill.

From this vantage point, Lembert Dome looked much like Half Dome did when viewed from the woods near Mirror Lake.

 
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.

 

JBRish.com originally published this post
*All photographs Copyright by Jeffrey B. Ross with all rights reserved.

 
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.

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Meta Data – Day 170 YOY – Year of Yosemite

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Year of Yosemite (YOY) – Day 169 (Lembert Dome Stream Crossings – 3/8)

Jeff

There were a surprising number of stream crossings we had to navigate

During the spring thaw, there are a good number of stream crossings along the Lembert Dome Trail.

We understood that during the time we were hiking there would be snow melt and with that would come the need to navigate through wet areas. When we came across a stream, that was not surprising. We did not anticipate that we would have to do this as many times as we did. I also did not appreciate how much water the streams would carry and how wide some of the crossings would be.

We would have to search up and down the banks of the streams to find the most suitable and narrow spot often adding a large fallen branch/log to the debris to help provide a dry foothold.

When does a stream become classified as a river?

 
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.

 

JBRish.com originally published this post
*All photographs Copyright by Jeffrey B. Ross with all rights reserved.

 
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.

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Meta Data – Day 169 YOY – Year of Yosemite

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