Yosemite Miscellenia

I was in Yosemite Aug 2-4 for our club's weekend at the Glacier Point Star Party and last weekend to help Tenaya Lodge (south of the park) with their annual Perseid program. I am going back up tomorrow evening to do some illuminated landscape star trails with Half Dome as the focal point.

I took a few photographs the last two weekends, but far less than usual. Due to last winter's puny 50% snow pack, the waterfalls are not running strongly if at all. In addition, a large fire north of Huntington Lake put a lot of smoke into the air. Fortunately for observing, the smoke was only really noticeable up to about 10° above the horizon.

We will start with Vernal Fall (lower) and Nevada Fall (upper), which are the strongest of the Yosemite Valley waterfall due to their river (the Merced) having a huge watershed that includes sufficient areas with soil to continue feeding the river from soil void moisture. During normal years, this is about what they look like in October.

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Moving on to Yosemite Falls. Right now Yosemite Falls has about as much water as a garden hose can put out. Yosemite Falls has a decent sized watershed, but most of it is bare granite. Thus, when the snow is gone, so is the waterfall. I took this photo from the upper portion of the Four Mile Trail. I didn't hike the entire thing; instead, I did an out-and-back to the top of the switchbacks.

I can't tell you how many people I have met over the years who come to Yosemite in the fall (or late summer after a bad snow year) and expect to see waterfalls running like in the brochures and are thus disappointed. Unlike much of the world, most of California has a Mediterranean climate, which means mild and somewhat wet winters and generally dry summers. A word to the wise: if you want to see waterfalls, visit Yosemite in April, May, or June.

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Thank you for posting those pictures. Brings back fond memories of my one time visit to this gem of a park.

Rolando

Great photos Fred. I'm helping stepson move west to Colorado next weekend, really a work thing but after looking at your shots I think I better bring a camera.

Harry