Tag Archives: meadow

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Pywiack Dome, Tenaya Creek in Flood

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Pywiack Dome, Tenaya Creek in Flood
Pywiack Dome, Tenaya Creek in Flood

Pywiack Dome, Tenaya Creek in Flood. Yosemite National Park, California. June 19, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pywiack Dome towers above Tenaya Creek as it floods surrounding meadows with spring snow melt, Yosemite National Park.

This little spot between Pywiack Dome and Tenaya Lake has interested me for some time. Driving past, I’ve been intrigued by the dome itself (of course!) but also by the small meadow below it where Tenaya Creek winds through a mixture of forest and meadow, and from which the outlet of Cathedral Lake is visible if you know just where to look. In the past, I’ve wandered about in this meadow a bit, trying to photograph lush growth of corn lily plants early in the season.

On this visit, as I drove by on the first day, I was struck by the amount of water flowing here – what I’m used to seeing as a meadow with a stream winding through it was filled from edge to edge with rushing water from snowmelt-swollen Tenaya Creek. I made a mental note to try to come back here the following morning when I thought that light might be interesting. And that’s just what I did on the second day of this visit during the weekend when the pass opened.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake, Sunset

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Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake, Sunset
Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake, Sunset

Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake, Sunset. Yosemite National Park, California. September 11, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Alpenglow lights Mount Conness above Lower Young Lake in the Yosemite National Park back-country.

I was recently going through a large portion of my archive in search of a variety of photographs of Mount Conness, a well-known peak along the northeast edge of Yosemite National Park on the crest of the Sierra. This is perhaps not the best known peak in Yosemite for most people – they are obviously going to be far more familiar with the cliffs and domes around Yosemite Valley or with Mount Lyell (the tallest peak in the park) or perhaps Mount Dana (second highest peak, and towering above the Tioga Pass entrance.) Mount Conness is found a bit further “north” along the crest, and while it may be less known, it is certainly no less visible once you know where to look. You can see it in the distance towering above Tenaya Lake if you stop at the iconic Olmsted Point overlook. It is visible from many places along the road to Tuolumne Meadows. Once you get away from roads and into the high country it can be seen from almost any high point with an open view in the direction of the peak, including places like Vogelsang High Sierra Camp.

This photograph was made on a quiet late-season evening at Lower Young Lake, a place that I return to frequently, most of the time in the off-season when fewer people are there and the fall colors of the high country are starting to appear. The peak (and many other features in this area) are beautifully illuminated late in the day as this high ridge is open without obstruction to the west. The light on the peak was magical on this evening, being colorful and contrasting with the higher and more drab clouds, but not being as gaudily bright as it can be on other evenings.

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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Elk Walking Across Grassland

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Elk Walking Across Grassland
Elk Walking Across Grassland

Elk Walking Across Grassland. Point Reyes National Seashore, California. May 30, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Tule Elk walking across grassland at Point Reyes National Seashore, California.

I know I promised that the previous one would be the last… but, yes, one more tule elk photograph. (For now? ;-) This one was slightly apart from the others in the group as they began to move off to the right, and I managed to time this photograph so that the others were out of the frame. Beyond that… perhaps not a lot new to say about photographs of tule elk at Point Reyes! :-)

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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Young Trees and Meadow, Tioga Pass

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Young Trees and Meadow, Tioga Pass
Young Trees and Meadow, Tioga Pass

Young Trees and Meadow, Tioga Pass. Yosemite National Park, California. July 22, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Young trees grow along the edge of subalpine meadows at Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park.

This meadow, right below Tioga Pass – which is among the trees in the saddle in the upper part of the photograph – is something of a magical spot in the Sierra. It is, of course, the highest point that you can drive to in the park, and it sits right on top of the crest of the Sierra Nevada. At just slightly less than 10,000′ of elevation it is verging on the true alpine zone. Because of elevation and location, it is only open for a few months each year between roughly the end of spring and generally some time in November. (For those of us who think of this as it looks in summer, it is sobering to remember that during the majority of the year it is a cold and snow-covered place.) Once you pass over Tioga you begin to descend into the very different world of the high deserts east of the crest. Yes, it still feels like the high country for a while, but within miles you are in hot dry places that are not at all like this alpine terrain.

Oddly, while a thin band of trees crosses the saddle at the pass, much of the area on either side is meadow. This section is on the “Yosemite side,” and is an extension of the many meadows along the Dana Fork of the Tuolumne River which drains this area around Mount Dana. As if to reinforce the idea that this is not as gentle a place as it may appear in the summer, parts of the meadow are filled with the bleached remains of trees struck down by avalanches from the ridge that is out of this photograph to the left. The trail to the summit Mt. Dana, of the second-highest peak of Yosemite (being a few feet shorter than Mt. Lyell), begins by crossing this meadow.

Although I drive over this pass with some frequency, I virtually always stop and get out of the car and look around for at least a moment. On this late-July visit I stayed more than a moment, spending a good portion of an afternoon wandering about the meadow and photographing these young trees, small streams and ponds, fallen trees, some of the more distant mountains, and much else.

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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.