I know this spot well, almost too well. The Rafferty Creek Trail ascends from Tuolumne Meadows to a low saddle called Tuolumne Pass and then, a short distance later, to Fletcher Lake, site of the Vogelsang High Sierra Camp.
I hike this trail at least once each summer and early fall. It seems like it should be a fairly easy hike. It is only about 7 1/2 miles and less than 2000 feet of climbing. But along with nearly everyone I talk to along this trail, I often find that I’m pretty beat by the time I get to this spot just below Tuolumne Pass.
The large peak in the center is Fletcher Peak, which towers directly over Fletcher Lake and the high sierra camp. To the right is Vogelsang Peak. To the left is the ridge extending back above Townsley Lake toward Parsons Peak.
This small tarn is just below Tioga Pass on the Yosemite side of the divide. I stop here almost every time I cross the pass, and I’ve seen it in many different conditions: rain, midday sun, sunset, thunderstorms.
—–
Feeling lazy this morning, I have posted an older photo that is a favorite.
Olmsted Point is the renowned Yosemite high country overlook on the Tioga Pass Road. In one direction you see Clouds Rest and Half Dome, in the other the famous view of Tenaya Lake and the domes and peaks beyond.
These glacial erratics (rocks left behind by a retreating glacier) are a short walk from the parking lot. Spectacular thunderstorms were developing all over the Sierra on this afternoon.
Unfortunately, as much as I like this photo it will never make a very large print. It was taken on a camera that does not provide an extremely sharp image and a significant amount of cropping was necessary.
—–
This is a somewhat different version of a shot I posted a couple of days ago. It shows some late-season greenery at Fletcher Lake in Yosemite’s backcountry.
Because of the wide dynamic range between the sunlit rocky slopes in the background and the shaded lake in the foreground, this image is a combination of two photos shot at different exposures. I created two Photoshop layers, each containing one of the original RAW files as a “smart object” so that I could edit them in the RAW converter before using masks and some other tricks to combine them.
—–
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
