Tunnel View Drama
Heather and I are hosting a French exchange student for the month of July, so we took her camping at Yosemite. It was just a weekend trip, so there wasn’t much time for photography, but I still fired off two rolls of Provia anyway.
The first day was spent in the Valley, which, in the summer, is about as crowded as Disneyland. After a stop at Glacier Point, we headed back to the campground at Bridalveil Creek for some dinner and S’mores.
The next morning, I walked out of the campground to a flower-filled meadow. The skies were cloudy, so I tried some close-ups of the sunflowers and lupine, but the wind was not cooperative. After returning to camp, the plan was to hike the Mist Trail. However, an impending thunderstorm led us to scrap this idea and instead head over to Mono Lake. On the way down, we stopped at Tunnel View, where construction has greatly reduced the parking space. The light at this time was poking through the clouds, and gave us a very dramatic view of an oft-photographed scene.
Mono Lake, for those who haven’t been there, is a surreal place on the eastern side of the Sierra, near the town of Lee Vining. The lake is famous for the strange formations that are present near its shores, called tufa (too-fah). We walked the loop trail around these photogenic formations, then hit the road back to Sacramento. It was a good trip, even if it was very short.
