Fletcher Lake Trees, Morning Light. Yosemite National Park, California. September 8, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early morning light illuminates lakeside trees, meadow, and rocks at Fletcher Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

Years ago, before the park service became (justifiably) more concerned about the damage that hikers and campers causes to meadows, one might have camped among these trees near the shoreline of Fletcher Lake, near Vogelsang High Sierra Camp in the Yosemite high country. I first visited Fletcher that long ago, and I still return every summer, typically near the end of the season when the meadow grasses turn brown and golden and when the crowds diminish. This photograph was made on just such a trip this past September, when the morning light was just coming around the side of Fletcher Peak.

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