Yosemite update

[Drew Wiley]

I detoured a couple days into Yosemite this week. The fall color is at its peak right now along the Merced River in Yos Valley itself; and it's exceptional this year.
The upper route via Crane Flat has a lot of red and yellow in the old burn areas. Best year I ever recall in that respect. But I was in a different frame of mind photographically, and only took one color shot in Yosemite itself. Otherwise, no crowds, no lines, no tour buses, very little traffic; the perfect time of year. Yosemite Falls is bone dry, but Bridal Veil Falls is still running. Great clouds and light; clear air, no smoke or haze.

The next day they temporarily opened up 120 uphill over Tioga Pass. I only went as high as Tuolumne Mdws, where the snow line was. They've closed that route again due to another incoming snowstorm. I had a particular telephoto project in mind and my timing was perfect. And of course, no more camping allowed this late in the year up there. The nights would be down around 15F anyway.

[Chuck_4x5]

It sounds wonderful........I've never been there but it's a dream of mine to make it there some day. I would have to drive because I don't fly!

[Eric James]

Some people say a picture paints a thousand words, but Drew can record a full getaway with about two hundred. Awesome!

Chuck, Amtrak used to get you to The Valley in a bus out of Merced.

[Alan Klein]

I detoured a couple days into Yosemite this week. The fall color is at its peak right now along the Merced River in Yos Valley itself; and it's exceptional this year.
The upper route via Crane Flat has a lot of red and yellow in the old burn areas. Best year I ever recall in that respect. But I was in a different frame of mind photographically, and only took one color shot in Yosemite itself. Otherwise, no crowds, no lines, no tour buses, very little traffic; the perfect time of year. Yosemite Falls is bone dry, but Bridal Veil Falls is still running. Great clouds and light; clear air, no smoke or haze.

The next day they temporarily opened up 120 uphill over Tioga Pass. I only went as high as Tuolumne Mdws, where the snow line was. They've closed that route again due to another incoming snowstorm. I had a particular telephoto project in mind and my timing was perfect. And of course, no more camping allowed this late in the year up there. The nights would be down around 15F anyway.

Hey Drew, Would it kill ya to post a cell phone picture? ;)

[Drew Wiley]

Hi Alan. I've never taken any kind of picture with my cell phone. It was turned off the whole time anyway. I reserve it for road emergencies, and for much of my trip I was outside reception area anyway. Frankly, I was primarily interested in hill country pictures down below, but was camped so darn close to Yosemite that, what the heck. I love looking at the fall colors, but that doesn't mean I was hunting them photographically. But since the light and wind were so cooperative, both in the Valley and up around Olmstead Point, I did bag a fair number of very promising black and white shots, predominantly MF telephoto, but a couple of 4X5's too. On the way back home all the rain pretty much confined me to quickie MF rangefinder work along the backroads, which is more what I had in mind all along anyway.

That's the irony of it - right when Yosemite is at its most spectacular in certain respects, even the cell phone crowd was nowhere to be found. I didn't see a single other person in the meadows when I wandered out there. The usual turnouts were empty. There were about a dozen cars beside the road looking for climbers on El Cap - oooch - if they were up there, their fingers must have been awfully cold on the rock that day.

[Alan Klein]

Hi Alan. I've never taken any kind of picture with my cell phone. It was turned off the whole time anyway. I reserve it for road emergencies, and for much of my trip I was outside reception area anyway. Frankly, I was primarily interested in hill country pictures down below, but was camped so darn close to Yosemite that, what the heck. I love looking at the fall colors, but that doesn't mean I was hunting them photographically. But since the light and wind were so cooperative, both in the Valley and up around Olmstead Point, I did bag a fair number of very promising black and white shots, predominantly MF telephoto, but a couple of 4X5's too. On the way back home all the rain pretty much confined me to quickie MF rangefinder work along the backroads, which is more what I had in mind all along anyway.

That's the irony of it - right when Yosemite is at its most spectacular in certain respects, even the cell phone crowd was nowhere to be found. I didn't see a single other person in the meadows when I wandered out there. The usual turnouts were empty. There were about a dozen cars beside the road looking for climbers on El Cap - oooch - if they were up there, their fingers must have been awfully cold on the rock that day.
Reminds me of the quote: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Maybe the foliage wasn't really very pretty.

[Sal Santamaura]

...I've never taken any kind of picture with my cell phone. It was turned off the whole time anyway. I reserve it for road emergencies...

Ditto. And it's a prepaid thing obtained just for that purpose.


Reminds me of the quote: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Maybe the foliage wasn't really very pretty.

"Hearing" photographs via electronic means is, while ubiquitous today, neither the only nor best way to observe them.

[Willie]

Reminds me of the quote: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Maybe the foliage wasn't really very pretty.

Humans are not the only animal with ears.

[pgk]

I detoured a couple days into Yosemite this week. The fall color is at its peak right now along the Merced River in Yos Valley itself; and it's exceptional this year.
The upper route via Crane Flat has a lot of red and yellow in the old burn areas. Best year I ever recall in that respect. But I was in a different frame of mind photographically, and only took one color shot in Yosemite itself. Otherwise, no crowds, no lines, no tour buses, very little traffic; the perfect time of year. Yosemite Falls is bone dry, but Bridal Veil Falls is still running. Great clouds and light; clear air, no smoke or haze.

The next day they temporarily opened up 120 uphill over Tioga Pass. I only went as high as Tuolumne Mdws, where the snow line was. They've closed that route again due to another incoming snowstorm. I had a particular telephoto project in mind and my timing was perfect. And of course, no more camping allowed this late in the year up there. The nights would be down around 15F anyway.

Being based in the UK I have only visited Yosemite once for a few days. Nevertheless your description together with my memories paint a precise picture of what it must be like. Thanks.

[Michael R]

Drew’s post prompted me to have a look at a map of the park, which I actually can’t recall ever doing for some reason even though I grew up a fan of some of the photographers who did/have done so much work there. On the map most of the places/sites/areas basically north of the Tuolumne were unfamiliar to me from photography. Does anyone go up there?

[Drew Wiley]

Michael - nearly all my own photography and travel within Yosemite National Park per se has been done in the high country way way off the beaten path of Tuolumne Meadows or the "freeway" of the Muir Trail. Both the SE and NW quadrants of the overall Park experience little human visitation. My last long trip into there was about 7 years ago, and nobody else was encountered for an entire week of that 12 day trek. In fact, for much of it there were no signs of human presence whatsoever except for the obsidian chips left behind by ancient bighorn sheep hunters. The scenery excelled Yosemite Valley itself, in my opinion. Yes, a handful of climbers and off-trail types do wander through there each year; but it's a big area, and the odds of running into anyone else are pretty low.

Only now am I beginning to get caught up on a serious portfolio of the Valley itself, in distinction from the high country, and even that has been a relatively minor project compared to my experience in the even higher Sierra well south of Yosemite NP.

North of Tuolumne Mdws is a slightly different story. Depends on the section. The PCT trail obviously gets usage, but nowhere near as much as its southern extension as the John Muir Trail. There are lots of opportunities for solitude. But I can't think of any picture books of that area except Claude Fidler's, Yosemite Once Removed. Claude was a highly experienced Sierra climber who toted an ultralight 4x5 Gowland camera all kinds of remote places (strictly color film). AA took a well-known shot of Waterwheel Falls slightly downstream from Glen Aulin on the Tuolumne River; but it's his only example I can think of distinctly north of the Tuolumne Mdws area. So yeah, there seems to be a big void in terms of black and white work.

The northern half of Yosemite NP in terms of geologic granite terrain is quite a bit different from the southern half because it was covered with a cap glacier during the Pleistocene, much like Tahoe basin, but with lots of East-West jointing with long lakes and canyons that orientation. None of the Sierra south of there ever had a cap glacier, but only dramatic canyon glaciers. In other words, Yosemite Valley is hardly unique in that respect. There are numerous other deep glacial-cut valleys in the Sierra, some distinctly deeper, but none of them so easily accessible as Yosemite. There are even taller domes in the Sierra; Half Dome in Yosemite Valley is the third highest.

There are various trail entry points into the northern half of the Park. Some, like Hetch Hetchy, are relatively low elevation and can be rather hot in the summer. Others, like the passes over the pinnacled Sawtooth ridge on the northeast, outside of Bridgeport, are high and steep.

I have never explored the northern half beyond the Sawtooth area itself. I did have a coworker and sometimes backpacking buddy who knew the area extremely well. He especially liked Jack Main Canyon. Lots of solitude except for the abundant bear population. For years, the Park had a very questionable policy of helicopter transporting naughty Valley bears to that area. In turn, they'd teach their own cubs the art of food theft. Now the policy in the Park is starting to become a lot more like that in SEKI (Sequoia-Kings NP's). Any troublesome bear gets tracked down with a stern noisy chase-off as its only warning. Any repeat offender is euthanized. The mantra is no longer protection of individual bears, but of healthy normal wild bear populations. A lot of rogue Yosemite bears also got trucked to the mountains above LA, where they are now cabin-raiding pests.

[Michael R]

Thanks for the information.

It’s interesting that even post-Adams with all the tourism, it seems most of the photography continued/continues to be in the Valley area, although they are “hearty” enough to be able to get the most interesting conditions and avoid crowds by often going in there off-season. I doubt I’d be able to do any good photography there for a number of reasons so I don’t think I’ll ever go.

[Drew Wiley]

Heck - I've gotten great b&w shots even right from the Tioga road that I've never ever seen printed elsewhere, or even posted on the web. People, even most photographers, think like lemmings. And I don't know why "post-Adams" would make any difference. There were great photographers there long before him, and he certainly didn't even begin to photograph it all. The light is always changing anyway; and hopefully we see things in our own way. Yeah, I'll admit I've avoided the Valley most of my life; and I lived not far away. But the crowds can be dodged with reasonable planning.

Backcountry enthusiasts are now mostly interested in just web posting their shots. There are a few stitching types for sake of bigger files; but I doubt they sell much of anything. This is the era of outdoor sports videos instead.

However, I would remind folks that the whole of Yosemite is just one small part of a much larger mountain range containing two other National Parks and more than a dozen large official Wilderness areas.

[Michael R]

All I meant by post-Adams is that the park got a lot more popular and crowded. As you said though, good photos can still be made even in the touristy areas. Much of it seems to be done off-season but not always. For example John Sexton has made some pictures in an area called Happy Isles. I never knew where in the park that was until I looked at the map after you started this thread, so I had no idea Happy Isles is right in the thick of the tourist area and doesn’t even require much in the way of walking/hiking.

But you’re also right about the other parks. In fact I would say most of my favourite Adams pictures were made elsewhere or outside the park. It was fun looking at that map and seeing where some of the locations are - Ellery Lake etc. On the other hand the pictures Adams made in other parks seemed to require a lot more physical effort and general “outdoorsmanship” than I could ever muster. We’ve discussed Frozen Lake and Cliffs before - one of my favourite pictures of his, but there’s no way I could hack getting to Precipice Lake where that was made.

[Drew Wiley]

Yosemite Valley was crowded by the 1870's, and even more cluttered than it is now with tourist facilities, cattle herds, a slaughterhouse, sawmill, etc. The high meadows were being overgrazed with domestic sheep herds.

To take a picture of Ellery Lake in Adam's tripod holes, you just need to pull into the turnout and walk about five steps. It's right beside the highway. Same with Siesta Lake. If you want to take a picture of Mt Ansel Adams itself from the Lyell Fork of the Merced, well, that is a different story entirely. It is possible to get there with a pack mule like he did a couple of times, but not easy.

It was interesting seeing an episode of Bear Gryll's death-defying wilderness adventures where he was helicopter dropped right into the extreme wilds of Siesta Lake about 20 yards from the paved highway. Why didn't he just buy the postcard?

Precipice Lake is right along the High Sierra Trail in Sequoia NP - the other "freeway" besides the JMT. I've never taken that trail. I prefer "alternate" routes - or at least did. Hiking post-75 is a more logistically challenging with LF gear than it once was. And the greater portion of Sequoia NP is in fact wilderness, and nearly all of adjacent Kings Canyon NP. Only Yosemite provides a road up high over the top at Tioga Pass, although Sonora Pass further north is equally scenic. The pair of passes make a nice loop trip.

[Michael R]

I figured Yosemite would have become more of a family vacation/tourist spot in the second half of the 20th century but maybe I’m wrong.

I thought I remembered the hike to Precipice Lake being more of a slog than you’re describing but perhaps I’m misremembering Adams’s writings. Either way I probably wouldn’t make it. Bakersfield is more my speed.

[Alan Klein]

Yosemite Valley was crowded by the 1870's, and even more cluttered than it is now with tourist facilities, cattle herds, a slaughterhouse, sawmill, etc. The high meadows were being overgrazed with domestic sheep herds.

To take a picture of Ellery Lake in Adam's tripod holes, you just need to pull into the turnout and walk about five steps. It's right beside the highway. Same with Siesta Lake. If you want to take a picture of Mt Ansel Adams itself from the Lyell Fork of the Merced, well, that is a different story entirely. It is possible to get there with a pack mule like he did a couple of times, but not easy.

It was interesting seeing an episode of Bear Gryll's death-defying wilderness adventures where he was helicopter dropped right into the extreme wilds of Siesta Lake about 20 yards from the paved highway. Why didn't he just buy the postcard?

Precipice Lake is right along the High Sierra Trail in Sequoia NP - the other "freeway" besides the JMT. I've never taken that trail. I prefer "alternate" routes - or at least did. Hiking post-75 is a more logistically challenging with LF gear than it once was. And the greater portion of Sequoia NP is in fact wilderness, and nearly all of adjacent Kings Canyon NP. Only Yosemite provides a road up high over the top at Tioga Pass, although Sonora Pass further north is equally scenic. The pair of passes make a nice loop trip.

I think it's good that the average Joe can see and experience Yosemite. Most people are just visiting from far away, have no hiking equipment. That was me and my wife's experience when we decided to go at the last minute from San Francisco. Or they are old or have kids in tow and hiking or the backcountry trips are impractical. The Valley area allows them all to experience some wonderful outdoor beauty and photography while leaving the backcountry for more dedicated hikers and locals. After all the park belongs to all Americans and other foreign guests, not just to Adams types or Californians. We all pay Federal taxes.

Yosemite VAlley's Inspiration Point has to be experienced. It's awe-inspiring, and this shot was taken from the parking lot at the tunnel entrance to the park. Every photographer or non-photographer should have that chance.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/5262311653/in/album-72157625476289859

[Drew Wiley]

Adam's life as a hiker was pretty much over by the time he was 30. After that, he relied on stock animals to get around, and was highly involved in the huge Sierra Club outings, or convoys as I call em, of that era. Other notable figures in the movement, like David Brower and Cedric Wright, got around a lot more. In their younger years, one of them actually carried a violin and its case on backpacking trips, the other, a trumpet, plus big galvanized wash tubs hanging off the back. But it was really the earlier Chinese sheepherders who took routes through the mountains so difficult that some of those shortcuts have never been repeated since; then the cattlemen and miners; and long long before any of those, the ancient inhabitants themselves.

Yosemite Valley was a fairly comfortable location for its native inhabitants, the Ahwahneechee. But the white concessionaires were worried about their mode of dress or minimalistic lack thereof, and how it might shock visiting ladies from the East, so kicked them out of the Valley. A few descendants still remain in the general area. The horse and wagon carriage route into the Valley was a little higher than the present tunnel route.

The problem in modern automobile days is the sheer number of people from nearby cities down in the San Joaquin Valley who use Yosemite Valley almost like a weekend urban park to briefly escape the summer heat below. Then all those tour buses. It was almost inevitable that a reservation system is now in place during peak visitation months. The same system is now being tested in other seasonally overcrowded Natl Parks. I'd always drive thru the Park early in the morning, to avoid most of the traffic. Up at 4:00 AM at my place, over the top at Tioga Pass around 8:00, and on the trail above Bishop or whatever by 10:00 in the morning.

My own early family camping memories were back when people would sit in grandstands around Camp Curry to watch the bears being fed garbage in the evening, then after the sun set, the artificial "fire fall" ashes being pushed off Glacier Point. We'd car camp at Tenaya Lake, laying on the ground in old Army surplus sleeping bags. One night a bear licked my sister in the face while she was sleeping. She ran off screaming one direction, and jumped into the station wagon. The bear was even more scared, ran off the other direction, right over me, and then crashed into a set of garbage cans further away. The Park system obviously didn't manage wildlife very wisely back then.

[Alan Klein]

Adam's life as a hiker was pretty much over by the time he was 30. After that, he relied on stock animals to get around, and was highly involved in the huge Sierra Club outings, or convoys as I call em, of that era. Other notable figures in the movement, like David Brower and Cedric Wright, got around a lot more. In their younger years, one of them actually carried a violin and its case on backpacking trips, the other, a trumpet, plus big galvanized wash tubs hanging off the back. But it was really the earlier Chinese sheepherders who took routes through the mountains so difficult that some of those shortcuts have never been repeated since; then the cattlemen and miners; and long long before any of those, the ancient inhabitants themselves.

Yosemite Valley was a fairly comfortable location for its native inhabitants, the Ahwahneechee. But the white concessionaires were worried about their mode of dress or minimalistic lack thereof, and how it might shock visiting ladies from the East, so kicked them out of the Valley. A few descendants still remain in the general area. The horse and wagon carriage route into the Valley was a little higher than the present tunnel route.

The problem in modern automobile days is the sheer number of people from nearby cities down in the San Joaquin Valley who use Yosemite Valley almost like a weekend urban park to briefly escape the summer heat below. Then all those tour buses. It was almost inevitable that a reservation system is now in place during peak visitation months. The same system is now being tested in other seasonally overcrowded Natl Parks. I'd always drive thru the Park early in the morning, to avoid most of the traffic. Up at 4:00 AM at my place, over the top at Tioga Pass around 8:00, and on the trail above Bishop or whatever by 10:00 in the morning.

My own early family camping memories were back when people would sit in grandstands around Camp Curry to watch the bears being fed garbage in the evening, then after the sun set, the artificial "fire fall" ashes being pushed off Glacier Point. We'd car camp at Tenaya Lake, laying on the ground in old Army surplus sleeping bags. One night a bear licked my sister in the face while she was sleeping. She ran off screaming one direction, and jumped into the station wagon. The bear was even more scared, ran off the other direction, right over me, and then crashed into a set of garbage cans further away. The Park system obviously didn't manage wildlife very wisely back then.
Maybe they should allow bears in the valley to keep the number of human visitors down?

[Michael R]

My own early family camping memories were back when people would sit in grandstands around Camp Curry to watch the bears being fed garbage in the evening, then after the sun set, the artificial "fire fall" ashes being pushed off Glacier Point. We'd car camp at Tenaya Lake, laying on the ground in old Army surplus sleeping bags. One night a bear licked my sister in the face while she was sleeping. She ran off screaming one direction, and jumped into the station wagon. The bear was even more scared, ran off the other direction, right over me, and then crashed into a set of garbage cans further away. The Park system obviously didn't manage wildlife very wisely back then.

Other than the fact your sister could have had her face ripped right off, that’s a pretty comedic story, especially the bear crashing into the garbage cans. This could easily have been on The Simpsons.

Was it a big bear?

[Drew Wiley]

Yogi bear types are just plain obese. Glad I was padded with a sleeping bag. I was around six at the time. Wild-fed black bears are about half the size, and have much sleeker, blacker, healthier looking fur. Same goes for coyotes - the junk food ones look all scruffy, and are conspicuously lazy.

Unless they have become accustomed to people, black bears in the West are rather timid. That's because they were never apex predators here - grizzly bears were.

Yosemite has amended its foolish ways. Last year in Yos Valley I saw a Ranger go after a little black bear cub with a paintball gun. Spectators were appalled, since some of them were hoping to see a bear. But then it was explained to them by that same Ranger that was her job to protect bears themselves from a more dire fate if they got too accustomed to people and their picnic boxes.

Yellowstone took that approach with grizzlies some time back after several tragic interactions one year. I remember grizzles hanging around all over the place beside the highway.
My mother rolled down the car window to take a picture of them while she was eating a sandwich. A bear reached right in and deftly removed that sandwich with its huge claws. My mom never made that mistake again. The famous 399 grizzly, the world's most photographed one, was uniquely given a pass around people, along with its cubs, until it was recently hit by a truck near Jackson Hole.

[Michael R]

I guess it’s like that old joke. Drew’s sister doesn’t have to outrun the bear. She just has to outrun Drew.

[Drew Wiley]

She's still in relatively good shape at 80. Their huge gardens are the reason for that. I won't mention the practical jokes she pulled on Yosemite Rangers when she was a teenager; they'd get one into quite a bit of trouble today. A high school classmate of hers lived way down in the canyon below us and wanted to become a nuclear engineer, so was looking for a summer internship in engineering when he spotted a help-wanted ad for Yosemite. That would really impress the girls - him being chosen to sit at a drafting table in a National Park office. So he accepted the job, and then to his surprise, finally learned what the role of a Sanitary Engineer actually was - cleaning Park restrooms.