Yosemite

The Great Spirit, angered by the bickering of a husband and wife, turned them into stone. And that is the origin of the sheer granite summits of Yosemite Valley, according to the native people.

I had the good fortune  to visit Yosemite National Park the day it opened, post-you-know-what. The photos in this series are a rare look at the park sans the multitudes that flock to it in peak season.

Sierra Nevada translates roughly to ‘Snowy Hills’. Come Spring, the warming weather melts the snowpack and waterfalls start to flow. On my visit, it was so quiet that I could hear the water thundering down no matter where I was in the valley.

Cue the ‘nature is healing’ memes. The deer seemed more taken aback than I was. Clearly, they hadn’t seen people in a while.

Sheer cliffs, thundering waterfalls, meadows, wildlife – perfection.

Another view of the Lower Yosemite Falls, this time with the Merced River in the foreground.

I wasn’t expecting color in the sky on my drive down from a vista point above the valley (Glacier Point). So when it happened, I was unprepared. Shot hand-held in low-light. You can see the Merced River glistening deep in the valley, surrounded by the Sierra.

Yosemite Valley, right before sunset.

The star of Netflix’s ‘Free Solo’: the impossibly sheer granite face of El Capitan.

California is a wild ride. Ocean. Beach. Then some windy/wine-y semi-Tuscan hills. Then a Mad Max desert that, if you are a certain type of person, can leave some pretty deep emotional scars. And then, suddenly, snowy alpine peaks with lush forests and sparkling lakes.