Some of you know by now, my wife booked us (me and the kids) room at the historic Mariposa Hotel Inn for Thanksgiving. She woke me up Thanksgiving morning and told me to pack! We had no plans for the day, no Turkey to cook and her mom and dad were visiting out of state.

Sounded good to me. We like things a bit un-traditional. We found only one restaurant open and instead of ordering the Turkey buffet, we had hamburgers instead.

Since we were 45 minutes from Yosemite, I had to drive up the next day and do the “tourist thing”. My wife suggested doing the nature walk at 3pm, so that’s what we did.

Had to stop and get a picture of Cathedral Rocks.

Cathedral Rocks

Had to photograph the trees while we were on our nature walk.

Trees

We “missed” sunset as we were on the bus. Didn’t see any ‘wow’ moments anyway. Had to stop here and try and capture the last bit of light on El Capitan.

El Capitan

Before I packed up for the evening, I tried two long exposures of Lembert Dome…

…and Mount Dana.

Still more images to go through. Stay tune…

I cropped this vertical to a panoramic format, to get rid of the two trees to the left and the right.

I went for a wider view a few minutes later to frame the two trees.

I’m still going through my pictures, to include some abstract shots from Tioga Lake, dusk shots from Tuolumne, and sunrise images from Mono Lake. State tune…

One the way I stopped here and captured Mammoth Peak from “Tuolumne Lake”.

I moved on and found my location for the evening. I got my tripod, camera bag, coat and gloves and walked a short distance. From here I could photograph Mammoth Peak, Lembert Dome and Unicorn Peak if I needed to…..which I did.

Here’s another view showing mammoth Peak from Tuolumne Meadows.

I’m still going through my pictures from that evening and my morning trip to Mono Lake. I’ll post some more in the coming days. Stay tune…

My wife had the day off and suggested a trip to Hornitos with the kids. I was okay with that, since we haven’t had a family outing in a while. I didn’t mention Yosemite as an option because sometimes it’s tough to do both family activities and photography. Besides that, it was almost 2pm and we had a 2 hour drive. My wife said, lets just go to Yosemite. After several “No, let’s just stay here”, we packed up our things and drove up to Yosemite.

We found some snow along the road and let the kids play for about 45 minutes. Drove over to the village to take care of “business” and drove up to Tunnel View….later than I planned on.

Got there at 5:20 and there was one spot open, and it was on the other end of the parking lot by the tunnel. The light was already changing. Ever see how fast a guy with two fixed legs person can walk…LOL!! I almost just “camped” in the middle of the parking lot to get the first shot, but I found a spot along the wall.

I just love the little curl in the clouds!

Always check to see what’s happening behind you, especially since Tunnel View faces east.

One the way home a finally stopped in Mariposa to take this picture of the Saint Joseph’s Church.

Had a great time, despite the fact we were there for only 2-1/2 hours and Sarah got sick on the way home. She’s fine now, just car sickness. Thanks Stacy for making me go! I noticed the webcams this evening and there was no colors to see….

Even in Yosemite, Sarah doesn’t like to wear shoes!

When I started having problems with my knees in 2005/2006, I thought I’d like to take the family to hike to May Lake after my knees were replaced. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned. Both of my knees are now permanently fused straight. But I still thought I could make it the 1.2 miles to the lake, but that morning I started doubting. The voice of reason (Stacy) told me I better go and try or she’d kill me!

So we drove the 1.5 hour trip up to the May Lake trailhead and started the hike at 1pm. I originally thought of using my tripod to use as a trekking pole, but decided at the last minute to pack light. I brought my camera (5D) and the 70-200 mm lens. No flash, no tripod, and no extra lenses. Stacy carried the water.

It was pay back for all of the times when Stacy and I used to backpack. I had a faster pace back then and every time I stopped to take my breath, Stacy would catch up….and I’d start walking again. Well, she did it to me on this trip, except she had all of the water. I had to tell her to stop so I could get a drink.

We made it! It took about 1.5 hours to hike the 1.2 miles, but I made it.

For the trip down, I packed the camera and carried the water and focused my attention on getting down! About half way down, I gave Stacy the keys so they could just hike down at their own pace.

We spent an hour at the lake and I got back at 6pm. Not sure if I’ll ever go backpacking again, mainly because of time/weight, but I’m now trying to think of my next hike. Thinking about Alpine Lake on the way to Mount Conness….

So I started the drive back to Lee Vining and the rest of my family. I kept looking at the moon and turned the bend, right past the Tioga Pass Resort and saw a photo op! Grabbed the tripod from the back of the van and took this as that final image.

Twightlight on the Kuna Crest

Twilight on Mammoth Peak