Picture of the week

Winter Softness

Freshly fallen in a meadow along a winter ski and snowshoe trail out to Dewey Point at Yosemite.  Photographed close to sunset while on my return back to Badger Pass on backcountry skis from this viewpoint last week.  It is about 7 mile round trip from the Badger Pass parking lot, taking about 1.5 hours each way on skis at a brisk pace, stopping a few times along with way for some short breaks.  Myself and fellow traveler Randy got a late start coming from Sacramento. After a bit exploration down in the valley, we hit the trail at about 1pm, reaching Dewey Point by 2:30, spending 30 minutes for a late lunch and some photographs at the point, and then getting back to the car before dark at 4:30.  Given the relatively modest slopes of this route, we were able to do this without the use of skins, being easier on the way out when the snow was softer.  On the way back as the snow started to ice up, a little more effort was required to get the mechanical bottoms on our skis to bite on some of the uphills.  We made up for the ice on the last mile, getting the benefit of the downhill slope for skiiing back to the car.

A clickable topo map with the route traced in red is shown to the right.

As the air temperature drops, the moisture in the air condenses back to a snow like fog, referred to by some as "snog".  This can give pictures taken under these conditions a more ethereal look.  Winter is a more peaceful time for visiting this national park, with different types of landscape photography opportunities one normally sees during the warmer season. Thanks to the recent waves of storms, there is plenty of snow here, with the waterfalls all starting to flow again.  I also noticed down in the valley that even Horsetail falls is active.

On the previous weekend I also had the pleasure of hiking through the snow amongst the giant sequioas of Calaveras Big Trees state park east of Murphys.  The contrast of the snow with the stark red trunks of these giant redwoods is something I find quite attractive.

For a complete collection of my fine art images of Yosemite, please see my gallery here.

All content and images are property of Stephen Fischer Photography, copyright 2010-2015.  Last updated: 12/21/2015   ()