Yosemite and Beyond

They say that John Muir is largely responsible for bringing attention to Yosemite Valley and eventually convincing people to turn it into a national park.  Well it is a national treasure and once you visit Yosemite you think of when and how you can return to see more of the beauty that you left behind.  I was a little surprised a the length of the drive from San Diego to Yosemite.  Yes I ended up stopping in a few places like San Luis Obisbo and San Jose for an evening but my trek up there by car took 3 days.  It was well worth it.  With my camera in hand I found lots of interesting things to photograph.

I didn’t actually get as many amazing photos as I would have expected.  Well we ended up hiking up half dome which was far scarier and far harder than I would have imagined prior to committing to the hike.  I vowed when I got to flat ground never to do it again.  The best places I think to photograph in Yosemite were mirror lake and the Yosemite Valley itself.  Not all the best photos are at sunrise, in fact sunset is better and the case of Mirror Lake the photos get best between 8 and 10 am in the summer.  The photos could get even better in the winter because they lake fills up much higher given you pristine and still mirror images of half dome and other peeks in the area.