An hour at Tunnel View in Yosemite

Spending an hour at Tunnel View in Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park.

This is the first post in a small series that follows from a recent overnight trip to Yosemite. The images in this post were actually shot at the end of our trip. So why am I showing these pictures first? Well, because as nice as I think these images are, they aren’t my favorite shots from the trip, so why not build a little suspense along the way? Besides, I figured it would be both fun and insightful to split the coverage and my sharing into several time-based segment posts. And of course, I’d love to know if one of these images is a standout, so if you do like one of these images better than the others, it would be great if you’d let me know.

The trip was taken in this latter part of October, specifically the 23rd and 24th, with the goal of making a hike out to North Dome before Tioga Pass Road closed for the season. In fact, as the weather-gods would have it, the National Park Service closed Tioga Pass Road the night of our hike for 36 hours, and then again indefinitely (likely for the season) just six days later. I took this trip with with my buddy and fellow photographer, Sean McLean, who I met several years ago at one of my Point Reyes workshops. More about the hike in the next post…

By the time we arrived at our camp along the Merced River after our hike, Sean had barely set up his tent and climbed inside when the weather-gods unleashed an unusual late-night thunder and lightning rainstorm fueled by tropical typhoon moisture blown in from the Pacific Ocean. Our 6:00 AM alarm to go shoot sunrise was quickly silenced due to the sound of still-falling rain. After we had packed up our camp and made breakfast, I was thinking we would just head west away from the valley. Sean pointed at the now-clearing clouds and suggested we make a quick run up to Tunnel View just to see how the clearing storm was looking over Yosemite Valley.

Photos: (Above; #1) Morning mist after a storm along the base of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, as seen from Tunnel View, Yosemite National Park, California #1: (Click here to purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023b_YOS-0144)

We arrived at 9:00 AM and stayed for roughly an hour. We spent some time talking with other visitors who were also enjoying the view, and shooting away as clouds danced along the walls of the valley. The sun teased us several times before finally breaking out of the clouds for a few moments, casting some nice mid-morning light on El Capitan and the forest of Yosemite Valley. One thing I should point out here is the number of dead pine trees in the Valley, and throughout parts of the Sierra Nevada, are caused by a combination of drought-related stress and an infestation of pine bark beetles.

Read the next parts of the series, “Two Hours on North Dome and 42 seconds on Half Dome.” And again, if you have a favorite image from the images presented here, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know which one you like the most.

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#2: (Click here to purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023a_YOS-0719)

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#3: (Click here to purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023a_YOS-0731c)

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#4: (Click here to purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023b_YOS-0156)
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#5: (Click here to purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023b_YOS-0176)

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Gary Crabbe is an award-winning commercial and editorial outdoor travel photographer and author based out of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. He has seven published books on California to his credit, including “Photographing California; v1-North”, which won the prestigious 2013 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal award as Best Regional title. His client and publication credits include the National Geographic Society, the New York Times, Forbes Magazine, TIME, The North Face, Subaru, L.L. Bean, Victoria’s Secret, Sunset Magazine, The Nature Conservancy, and many more. Gary is also a photography instructor and consultant, offering both public and private photo workshops. He also works occasionally a professional freelance Photo Editor.

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