Yosemite Trip
My housemate is a photographer who travels exclusively to chase the sun in incredible places. Liam had just explained to me that in Yosemite the fog is formed when the wet ground saturates the air of the valley with moisture and on a cold night that water coalesces in the air as the solubility decreases and you get a beautiful layer of fog. It had just rained in Yosemite and they were due for a cold night. He asks if I want to go to Yosemite in two days, and I'm unemployed so of course I say yes. So two days later, Liam, Mary Stuart, and I are in Mary Stuart car on our way to Yosemite to capture the Valley's beauty.
We arrive at 10:00 pm on Wednesday filled with anticipation seeing fog in the small valleys as we approach. Heading straight to tunnel view, we are treated with a view of the valley. Bathed in the soft light of the full moon on a clear night, the valley laid restful beneath a blanket of fog, mounded up against the wall of El Cap flowing gently out and in with each of the valley's breathes. We stayed out in the frigid air for hours until we had to sleep ourselves. As quietly as we could, we pulled in to our camp and put up our tents.
The next morning we woke up for sunrise at 5am. Bleary eyed, we returned to tunnel view to see the sunrise and make our coffee. While Liam went off to chase the perfect shot, Mary Stuart and I ground up beans and made our coffee using my Aeropress.
Heading back into the valley the sun shone through the light mist casting everything in warm light, rays of which spilled over the trees transporting them to the ethereal realm. Once the sun rose higher, the valley began to cast off the rays. I began to hunt for the remaining flowers at this time of year. I found a few, more than I thought, just had to keep my eyes open.
We ate our breakfast on a bench in the meadow, hiked to mirror lake, smoked a joint, and caught the sunset at tunnel view.
The next morning we took it easy packing up and playing Rummikub chatting it up with the kiwis next to us. As checkout arrived, our neighbor asked if we wanted to take his whole backpacking sleep system; tent, pillow, sleeping bag, and pad. Everything was drenched in water and he didn't want to deal with is so we took it, drying it in the sun best we could. We then went down to the beach by the lodge to play more Rummikub under the watchful eye of half-dome until we left to watch sunset from valley view.
Check out Liam's Instagram.