Gaylor Basin and the Cathedral Range, Evening. Yosemite National Park, California. July 26, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Evening shadows stretch across the boulder-filled meadows and forests of Gaylor Basin with the peaks of the Cathedral Range on the skyline, Yosemite National Park.
On the first evening of my late-July four-day visit to Yosemite’s high country along Tioga Pass Road I decided to visit this favorite location of mine. It is a short (but steep!) hike from near Tioga Pass over a nearby ridge to reach this quiet basin with its many lakes, long distance views of the Cathedral Range, and the treeline terrain of rocks and trees that I believe is my very favorite in the Sierra.
I started out after my mid-afternoon “dinner” and the drive to the trailhead from my camp at Porcupine Flat. Probably because it was so late in the day, I met a fair number of people hiking back out but only saw two others in the entire basin once I arrived. I suppose this is one of the advantages of keeping odd “photographer’s hours” – while most people are heading back to camp to fix dinner, I’m heading out to catch the evening light.
In the end, I didn’t make many photographs on this evening. I mostly wandered, something I love to do in these high open basins. I walked around the first lake, passing over some still-unmelted snow, and crossed the very full outlet stream, trying to skirt the wettest portions of the meadow by looking for rocky terrain. I finally settled on an area just below the lake and made a few photographs of trees and rocks and the long, shallow valley leading toward the main trunk of the Tuolumne River and the mountains beyond. I finished just after dusk, climbed back up the ridge as darkness came on, and finished the hike back to my car with the help of the light from my headlamp.
G Dan Mitchell Photography
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The subjects are beautiful – but your restraint in post-processing is especially appreciated.
Another favorite photographer is Tom Gamache and his images of the Santa Monica Mountains and Death Valley.
Chloe M.
Thank you, Chloe! Of course, it helps to have such wonderful subjects to work with. ;-)
Dan
Dan,
I have seen many, many photographs of the Sierras – but yours really seem to capture the real essence of that truly magnificent ‘Range of Light’.
Chloe