Page 1 of 4
Yosemite National Park, California
I don't mind the sun sometimes, the images it shows
The classic view, flattened enough from the telephoto lens to feel not nearly like the head of the generous valley it really is. El Capitan (Spanish for "the Captain" I believe) is in detail on the left, while Half Dome (which in Spanish may be "El Half Dome") hides on the right-center, well over five miles away and 4500 feet above the valley floor.
Between Yosemite and Curry Villages a meadow breaks open with the aforementioned El Half Dome in clear view, while the easily accessible Glacier Point fades into the right.
IFor five nights I endured 45 degree temperatures, screaming kids, what I believe to be the cast of German MTV's "Road Rules" and the specter of hungry, human-food addicted bears sneaking about my canvas tent cabin just to be able to stand back and for a few moments to feel magically insignificant, cowering beneath the hundred feet of lodgepole pine, beneath the three thousand feet of cliffs of Glacier Point, beneath more stars than I knew existed...
After 2700 years of growing over 200 feet high, the aptly named Grizzly Giant at the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias feels like it really doesn't have that much more to prove. This is actually three photos stuck together, if you look really hard you can just see a few unknown tourists on the lower right (for additional scale reference, the trunk's diameter is about 30 feet).
The sequoias themselves are scattered in the upper and lower groves among many fine trees, doomed forever to be thought as insignificant next to trees like these.
My new favorite place in Yosemite, high above the valley's south rim yet only a few fateful steps away from the valley floor. And yes, that is El Capitain on the right.
