I love autumn in the mountains – the crisp air and fall colors along with the relatively light crowds always make for a wonderful experience. Paige had the lovely idea of heading to Yosemite Valley in early November and a few of us jumped in on the party. It turns out it was big weekend in the valley as celebrations of the 50th anniverary of the first ascent of the Nose of El Cap were happening. Combined with a bit of rain, it turned out to be a bit different than expected, but a fun weekend nevertheless.
I arrived on Friday night and met up with Paige, Steve, and Paul at our Upper Pines campsite. Greg and David arrived a little after midnight, and Barbara joined us on Saturday night. We hiked to Yosemite Point from the valley (just beyond Upper Yosemite Falls) and got some great views towards Half Dome and the Clark Range before it started to rain on the hike down. The rain continued through the night but it didn’t stop us from having fun. As Greg said, “what rain?”
Sunday we were all a bit slow to get started after the previous night’s weather and festivities, but we ended up checking out the climbing exhibit at the museum then heading over to Tunnel View for the short climb to Inspiration Point. This was a perfect hike for this time of year – the fall colors and crispy leaves are shown off really well on this trail.
I had a lot of fun playing with my new camera and lens on this outing and can’t wait to learn more and start coaxing better photos out of it.

Yosemite Valley in Fall (11.07-09.2008)

88 photos