Yosemitescapes

Tenaya Lake and Tenaya Peak

Quarter Domes, Sub-Dome and Half Dome at sun set.

Clouds Rest and Half Dome at sun set.

Mount Florence - 12,500 feet

Just an interesting picture in Yosemite

Clouds Rest and Half Dome

Half Dome at sunset.

Sunset over the coastal mountain range as viewed from Yosemite

View of the Sierra Nevadas from the east side at about 12,500 feet. There is a lot of smoke in the air in the valley but one range is peaking out the top. The snow on the mountains are ancient glaciers.

Sunset Talk Video

One of my favorite tasks as a Ranger is to perform Sunset Ranger Talks at Glacier Point. Most every evening about 30 minutes before sundown one of us Rangers will do a talk about the subject of our choice. Glacier Point is a very popular location for visitors to come view a sunset because of the points open views and close proximity to Half Dome. At any given night, there can be between 200 and 600 people sitting on the rocks to view sunset. It's fun to stand among them and converse with them. My entire talk is too long to place on this blog so I have included just my 7 minute introduction. Enjoy. View the full talk here.

My Ranger Duties

Me during on of my nature hikes on Sentinel Dome.

McGurk Meadow hike talking about a trail blaze on this tree.

I love Spain.

I love Sweden.

I love Brazil.

This 86 year old lady from Brazil had difficulty pulling the inclines to access Glacier Point so I offered her a Ranger powered wheel chair. I gave her a personal 30 minute one on one Ranger tour of the point. I think I learned more from her than she learned from me. She told me about her trip to the Amazon. We had fun. I like my job.

I love Japan

Critters

Black Bear sow and cub.

Cub feeding on wild rasberries.

This is a wilderness squirrel that eats squirrel food.

This is a squirrel that lives around humans and eats human food. I think we can learn something from this.

Blue Grouse

This is the way things move and get done in the high country.

Full Moon Walk

Every full moon evening I host a Full Moon Walk up to Sentinel Dome. I lug up a spotting scope, tripod and other visual aids. I talk about moon facts, myths and phrases. It's a lot of fun for me.

Here I am utilizing audience volunteers to illustrate the phases of the moon.

Lecturing about the moon.

Clouds Rest Hike

Clouds Rest. Not Mount Clouds Rest or Clouds Rest Mountain...just Clouds Rest. This is my destination for the day. 14 miles and thousands of feet elevation change. I'm getting an early predawn start here.

This is not a good image but it all I could get. This pix illustrates how glaciers opened up the canyon to make a huge bowl shape. This was an OMG experience for me to view this perspective of the glacial action.

Here is the summit of Clouds Rest. Glacier Point where I work and live is in the background.

Yahoo! I made it!

Here I am on the summit of Clouds Rest looking back at the trail head on the side of Tenaya Lake. It seems like a very long ways away.

Half Dome from Clouds Rest. Look closely and you can see hikers going up the cables to the summit.

Vogelsang Hike

Here it is...Vogelsang...my destination.

Vogelsang Lake.

Vogelsang Lake from near the Vogelsang Pass.

Mount Florence from Vogelsang Pass.

Mount Florence, Mount McClure and Mount Lylle from Vogelsang Pass.

Fletcher Peak and Fletcher Lake.

Vogelsang High Sierra Camp.

Fletcher Peak.

Evelyn Lake. This is where I camped for the night.

My camp.

Sunrise in the alpine sierra high country.

Yosemitescapes

Half Dome from Olmsted Point at sunset.

Clouds Rest from Olmsted Point at sunset.

Mount Hoffmann from Clouds Rest trail at sunrise.

The alpine high sierra at sunrise.

High Sierra tundra at Ireland Lake.

In the high country, don't forget to look up. Even the sky is interesting here.

Glacial Evidences

This is an eratic field. An eratic is a rock that was picked up and carried by a glacier. When the glacier melted, the rocks were gently lowered to the mountain surface below as is pictured here.

This is an interesting eratic. It was dropped on the top of this ridge and it is very out of place.

As the glacier moves over the bed rock it polishes the rock from it's extreme weight plus the surface of the glacier is like sandpaper from all of the rock and debris it collects along the journey. This image illustrates glacier polish and an eratic that was dropped on top of the polish. Interesting.

Another polish and eratic example.

As the glacier moves, it conforms to the rock surface under it as illustrated in this photo.