Fog, Trees, and Rocks at Sunset – Olmsted Point. Yosemite National Park, California. October 5, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening fog forms over rocky forest near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park.

Another unexpected photograph from my trip to the eastern Sierra to photograph aspens during the first weekend of October. Late on Sunday afternoon I made a spontaneous change in plans and instead of heading north to return to the Bay Area over Monitor Pass (and photograph the aspens on the top of the pass at sunset) I decided to instead head home over Tioga Pass and through the Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite. To be honest, the fact that the drive would be at least an hour shorter was probably the major factor. As I crossed Tioga Pass nothing really caught my attention as a photographic subject so I kept going. I passed through Tuolumne just a bit too late for any of the photos I had in mind – the light was just a bit too far gone on the meadow itself – so again I kept going.

Soon I noticed some thin fog-like clouds forming around some of the higher peaks. It occurred to me that this was probably from moist air from the previous day’s rain/snow condensing as the temperature dropped, and I began to suspect that something interesting and surprising just might happen to the atmosphere. As I arrived at Tenaya Lake a fog bank lay ahead at Olmsted Point. I chuckled to myself as I drove past this famous viewpoint for admiring Half Dome, now with a view that extended about 100 feet into the thick fog. However, a couple hundred yards further up the road I realized that the fog was very thin above this ridge and that the setting sun was softly illuminating the forest and rocky outcroppings beneath the fog. I quickly pulled over, grabbed my pack and tripod and charged up a nearby hillside into the forest, trying to find a spot where a bit of this light was still shining – and realizing that I had only a moment to catch it.

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