Hemlock and Pine, Stained Cliff. Yosemite National Park, California. September 11, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Trees grow in the shadow of a water-stained granite cliff, Yosemite National Park
Spend much time in Yosemite National Park — almost anywhere in the park — and the qualities of rock become a major focus. Most of that rock is some variation on granite, in forms ranging from domes and cliffs, to slabs and broken pieces, and boulders transported by ancient glaciers. By nature it is not a colorful rock, but in the right places and conditions it can pick up colors from black through reds and yellows and even green. In addition to the colors in and on the rock itself, granite picks up the colors of its surroundings and of the light — it may look cold and blue in some light and warm and yellow in different light.
During our early September week in the Yosemite backcountry we camped in a location surrounded by this rock. Jagged peaks and ridges towered overhead, glaciated domes and slabs were all around, and the bowl of the nearby lake was scooped out of granite. Along one side of the valley, where steepening granite slabs led upwards toward a high ridge, we found an unusual cliff near the base of this rise — hundreds of feet across and perhaps twenty or thirty feet high, its surface was marked by colorful stains from seepage, and trees and brush grew along its base.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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