Trees on Granite Slabs, Morning. Yosemite National Park, California. July 29, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Trees in morning light on granite slabs near Murphy Creek at Tenaya Lake, Yosemite National Park.

This is a subject that I returned to on my late-July visit to the Yosemite high country. I first noticed this scene a year ago, in a place that I have driven past without paying much attention for literally decades. It is one of those odd little “spots” that intrigue me for several reasons, including the fact that it is so easily missed and that it only appears (at least for me) at precisely the right time of day/season and when viewed from one particular angle.

The scene is at a location that is tremendously popular with Yosemite visitors who drive Tioga Pass Road to the high country. It is in the area between iconic Olmsted Point and the domes above Tenaya Lake, a portion of Tioga Pass Road that has something to attract almost the entire range of tourists: climbing, a lake with a beach, big views of tall cliffs, and so on. And on summer days like this one, it sometimes seems like all of those people are crowded along this section of the roadway (Though it can be relatively quiet at the early morning time when I made this photograph.) With so much to see, it is easy to miss things that appear only momentarily and only when you happen to look in the right direction while driving through a portion of the road that seems less spectacular by comparison. I guess the moral, yet again, is that between icon A and icon B, there are almost always hidden beauties C-Z if you keep your eyes open, even in places that you think you know.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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