Small Trees and Plants, Granite Slabs. Yosemite National Park, California. September 15, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Small trees and plants grow in a thin crack among stained granite slabs, Yosemite National Park.
Just over a small hill from the campsite on the first nights of my recent Yosemite back-country photography trip, the Tuolumne River cuts down through rocky terrain and past large granite slabs marked by intrusions of red rock. As is often the case in the Sierra, any tiny crack or weakness in the rock is enough for plants to get started. This very think crack supports a “grove” of very small trees, along with some other plants.
The previous week had been a rainy one, including the night before, when I arrived just in time to set up my tent before the rain began. As a result, water had been draining across this granite slope and highlighting the natural seepage lines on the rock and the colors of various deposits from the more colorful rock above and embedded in the granite slabs. I made this photograph in the very soft early morning light before the sun had risen high enough to send direct light down into the canyon.
G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Even after seeing the phenomenon of trees growing in the most unlikely places for decades, I’m still amazed by where these trees can “make a living.”
Dan
Love this small-scale shot, Dan! It brings to mind a classic line from the Jurassic Park movie, “Life finds a way.”
David, I’ve been visiting and looking at this phenomenon for decades, and I still am fascinated and amazed to the places that trees can manage to grow!
Dan
What a beauty. I love all the subtle color and the illustration of nature’s process of the continual breakdown of that granite.