Yosemite in March

Well, I guess I picked the wrong day to go to Yosemite National Park. A storm was off the coast after a week's worth of awesomely great weather. The morning was nice but, the clouds came in and made picture taking in the Valley kind of useless. So, I went straight to Plan Z and decided to pay a visit to the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias. I'd seen them before, years ago, when I was working on a fire salvage project adjacent to the park.

Below is an old dead Giant Sequoia that cars used to drive through in the old days. Its top broke out long ago but, as you can see, the rest of it is still quite impressive.

The sheer massiveness of these giants does take your breath away. They sure don't taper much as they reach for the sky, either. I just love that cinnamon-colored bark, too.

Here's that tunnel tree again, from the other side. Those two prongs stick up another 35 feet into the air but, I didn't see any of the rest of the tree on the ground. I'm guessing that it burned up in a fire at some point. That tunnel is about nine feet high, just to give you a frame of reference.

Earlier in the day, before the clouds came in, I tried stopping at my secret Merced River reflection spot, opposite the famous climbers Mecca of El Capitan. I couldn't seem to find many worthwhile shots before looking up and seeing this tiny little climber's bivouac hanging about a third of the way up. You're going to have to look closely to even see it! Right click on the picture, select "Open in a new window" and look at about 5 o'clock from the center of the picture. Why they were trying to climb this 3000 foot cliff in mid-March, I don't know. An old roommate of mine, years ago, got snowed off El Cap and had an epic tale to tell. Even zooming in as far as my powerful 10X zoom would go could not make that bivouac shelter any bigger. One of these days, I'll zoom in and crop out a new picture.

Finally, here's what the Merced River gave me as far as a reflection goes. With the warm temperatures, the river had a little more water in it than the previous times I was there. It's almost like a "natural abstract".

I go back to work on April 1st, and after a weeklong meeting in Reno, I'll be headed up to the Rogue River National Forest, along the southwest coast of Oregon, to inventory and measure trees for thinning projects planned. It's gonna be WET!!