Apr 25

 David and I drove to Yosemite so he could take a specific photograph, of a specific rock, at 6:30 pm, I don’t ask questions.  We left the house early afternoon to have plenty of time to revisit the Yosemite Renaissance XXVII Exhibit.  (David has a photograph in the exhibit) The reception, a couple months ago,  had been too crowded to fully enjoy the exhibit and it’ll be traveling on to a new location soon. 

The redbud are past their blooming peak and the poppy bloom has migrated up the mountain sides towards their crests.  The canyon is still a beautiful drive with the orange patches, greens of grasses, various oaks and shrubs leafing out, lupine and the lingering redbud.  The river is swollen with the melt of last weeks heat wave.

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While driving the canyon we noticed large clouds over Yosemite.   The clouds were wonderful all afternoon so I photographed the iconic places – with clouds.  The heat wave has revived the valley’s waterfalls.  The bears are definitely active, we saw a large one off South Drive.

Yosemite Falls

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Bridalveil Falls

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El Capitan

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Saturday when we were in the park for Jeff Grandy’s reception at the Ansel Adams Gallery,  we didn’t notice the dogwood flowering.  Monday, two days later,  they were noticeably beginning to bloom.  Stop by the gallery and see Jeff’s beautiful photographs from his ‘Unfiltered’ series.  Michael Frye wrote about Jeff’s exhibit here.

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David photographed his specific rock then we went up to Tunnel View to wait for the sunset.  We were hoping for color but the clouds in the west blocked the sun too much.  It was still a beautiful sunset.

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The clouds over the tunnel were dark and threatening.  The air was perfumed with a very heavy odor of rain.

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For a brief moment the cloud above lit up with color giving an added little bonus to the evening.

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The Grand color over Half Dome.  This was it, two little clouds turned pink.  It was a perfect ending to a perfect day for the two of us.

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Apr 16

 

We returned to the Hite’s Cove Trail yesterday.    Gold was discovered in Hite’s Cove in the 1860’s.  We’ve never hiked to the end of the trail but we’ve hiked far enough to see rusted relics from the gold mining era.  Now Hite’s Cove is know for the abundance and variety of wild flowers.

We met fellow Google+ photographers John H. Moore and Tony Payne in the parking area when we arrived.  John had posted the vehicle he’d be driving and David had seen his picture online.  We introduced our selves then headed for the trail.  Vincent Goetz was already at the head of the trail photographing, of course, poppies.  Vince left us early for other destinations while John, Tony, David and I photographed along the trail.  Though we knew  G. Dan Mitchell and  Michael Frye would be out photographing as well, we never saw either one of them.

Vince is on the hillside, Tony directly in front of me, John in long sleeve white shirt and David is visiting with a neighbor.

April15HitesCove  The little wildflower, Bird’s Eyes.

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Poppy and Bird’s Eyes.

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We parted ways with John and Tony and continued up the trail.  This was the next spot on the trail with a good coverage of poppies.

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Below: Redbud and blue Fiesta Flowers.  There were many varieties of flowers blooming, blue dicks, miniature lupine, silver bush lupine, Caterpillar Phacelia, Chinese Houses, Shooting Stars, Goldfields, Indian Paint Brush, Popcorn Flower, I saw one Live Forever and I saw Twining Snake Lily buds so it won’t be long until they bloom as well.  There were lots of other flowers I couldn’t identify.

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Looking down the canyon to the trail head on our way out.

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The flowers were fully open when we returned to the trail head.  Poppies and Popcorn flowers carpet the hillside down to the river.  This section of the trail has a steep drop off and is only a person wide on a majority of the trail.  I’m simply looking down to the river from the trail.  I accidentally got to toe of my boot in one picture.  I don’t mind the narrow trail and steep slopes but I do wish there wasn’t so much poison oak.  It’s right along the trail where it can easily be brushed.

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A hillside of poppies on Highway 140 near Slate Bridge.

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Apr 01

David and I left the house around 5am this morning.  We went to Yosemite to see if it had snowed on the Valley floor.  It had, Yosemite was a winter wonder land on a cold spring morning.  David photographed from Tunnel View while I sat in the car.  It was 34-36 degrees so I was quite happy to cocoon myself in the semi warmth of the car from 6:45 – 10 while David photographed.  Michael Frye, Claudia Welch and Christine White Loberg were all there as well.

I was a bad photographer, shame on me, I didn’t get my tripod out of the car at all – I wanted quick access back into the car.  There were lots of mists and it lightly snowed a good deal of the time we were there.  Below: Raven and Bridalveil Falls in light snow and mists.  1RavenBridalveil

 

Raven and El Capitan.

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From Valley View on our way home around 10am.

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The poppies are still blooming in the canyon.  The red bud is beginning to bloom as well.  Another photographer said Hite’s Cove has a lot of flowers.

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