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Best time to visit Death Valley AND Yosemite?

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I just saw and replied to a forum post asking about the best time to try to visit Death Valley, the eastern Sierra, Tioga Pass/Tuolumne Meadows and Yosemite Valley in one trip that starts in Las Vegas and ends in Sacramento. I’m reposting my reply here since I’ve heard others ask similar questions elsewhere. Note that despite the lengthy post, this doesn’t by any means completely answer this question. So, with minor edits, here is what I posted:

When to do a trip that includes Death Valley and Yosemite Valley and everything in between? This is a very tough question.

The “best” time to visit Death Valley is generally thought to be in the November to early April time frame – but that coincides with closure of the Tioga Pass entrance into  Yosemite National Park, typically lasting from possibly (but not always) late October or mid-November until (usually) sometime in May.

So, I think it becomes a question of which end of the trip you want to compromise. Do you want to deal with Death Valley during the very hottest time or do you want to deal with the potential for a very long drive around the southern part of the Sierra (and missing the “east side”) in order to get to The Valley after the pass closes?

I travel and photograph throughout this area a lot, so let me offer some ideas. Continue reading Best time to visit Death Valley AND Yosemite? →

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Evening, Tenaya Lake, From Near Olmsted Point

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Evening, Tenaya Lake, From Near Olmsted Point

Evening, Tenaya Lake, From Near Olmsted Point. Yosemite National Park, California. September 8, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of early evening light on Tenaya Lake and surrounding valley and peaks as viewed from near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park, California.

On this late summer evening I had just hiked out from a three-day backcountry photography pack trip, driven over Tioga Pass to grab a bit at Tioga Pass Resort, and was starting my drive home from the park. I happened to pass by Olmsted Point (where I don’t stop all that often these days) just as the sun was getting read to drop behind the ridge to the west of the point. To my mind, this is just about the most beautiful time of day at this spot, especially as the low angle sun illuminates rocks in the Olmsted Point area and begins to leave the valley holding Tenaya Lake. To make a long story short, I spent 30-45 minutes photographing here before heading home, and I make a few exposures of Tenaya just as the last light was hitting some of the nearby trees in the foreground.

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Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Leaving Lembert Dome, Dusk

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Leaving Lembert Dome, Dusk

Leaving Lembert Dome, Dusk. Yosemite National Park, California. July 30, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Hiker leaving the summit of Lembert Dome at dusk. Tuolumne Meadows, with the Sierra crest in the background. Yosemite National Park, California.

I shot this last summer on an evening when I had just finished photographing the Sierra sunset from the top of Lembert Dome in the Tuolumne Meadows area. The “good light” had seemingly ended and I had packed up my camera, lenses, and tripod and was heading down from the peak when there was a wonderful bit of post-sunset warm, soft light… just at the moment when this lone hiker crossed this section of the granite come below me. Not having time to set up my tripod and other gear properly, I simply grabbed three frames at very low shutter speeds, and I was very pleased when I found that one of them actually turned out beautifully. In this case, I was shooting hand held at such low shutter speeds that I had to rely on the image-stabilization feature of the lens I had on my camera at that moment.

(Update#2: Since I posted this color version I was contacted about licensing the use of  a black and white version of the photograph in a print journal. There are, I think, a few lessons in this shot and this experience.

  • First, not all landscape photography is done at a sedate and leisurely pace, pondering for many minutes the intricacies of composition and so forth. Sometimes things happen so quickly that you must depend upon instincts and react quickly to a situation that only lasts a moment. In this case I could not possibly have anticipated the light or the appearance of the lone hiker – when I saw this conjunction of subjects I had no time to set up a tripod.
  • Second, sometimes traditional landscape approaches (tripod, small aperture, etc.) won’t get the shot and the adaptability of your gear may save the day… or evening. I pulled out my camera and handheld the shot using the lens that was already on the camera with image stabilization and a rather low shutter speed.
  • Third, it probably isn’t news to any one, but sometimes an image that you conceive as color may turn out to work well in black and white, and vice versa. Be flexible.

keywords: lembert dome, tuolumne, meadows, yosemite, national park, california, usa, alpine, mountains, forest, ridge, sierra, nevada, crest, evening, climber, rocks, landscape, scenic, outdoor, hiking, climbing, travel, stock, person, man