California,  Monday walks,  Mountains

A green and golden wonder

January 28, 2025 / 51 Comments

Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.

Ansel Adams

If you have any interest in photography and in the great masters of that art, you will know the work of Ansel Adams. And if you know Ansel Adams you will know Yosemite Valley. His photos of the landscape there are stunning and iconic.

While few if any of us are able to match his creations, we can certainly visit the places that inspired them and try our best to capture their beauty. Having visited the Valley on our first California road trip back in 1991 and having just few 35mm slides as a record of that visit, we were both keen to go back. And this time we were armed with our digital cameras and would have the freedom to take many more shots!

This then is the story of our day in the valley, with several short walks for Jo. We started early as it was a weekend and we knew, even in October, likely to get busy. So we skipped breakfast at our hotel and instead bought cans of iced coffee and cereal bars in the hotel shop to make a picnic breakfast.

El Capitan and Bridalveil Falls

We stopped at one of the first pull-outs soon after we entered the park, to take in the scene. The sun light was just touching the top edge of El Capitan.

Early morning at El Capitan

We’d only intended to stop briefly for a few photos, but we noticed a path across the road leading to Bridalveil Falls, which to our surprise still had some water flowing this late in the year. So we walked a little way along to take some photos before returning to the car and driving on in search of a nice breakfast spot.

Bridalveil Falls

We found it at Cathedral Beach, with a table right by the Merced River. It was still rather chilly this early in the day, as although the sun was now illuminating a little more of the far side, on this side we were still in shadow. But it was a beautiful spot and we had it all to ourselves!

Our picnic spot at Cathedral Beach
The Swinging Bridge

Our next stop was at the Swinging Bridge pull-out. By now the park was getting a little busier but it still wasn’t difficult to find places to stop. We walked down to and across the definitely not swinging bridge, to find some beautiful reflections in the Merced River from the beach area on the far side. Of course in the spring that beach would be covered with water, but at least there was still enough flowing in the river to enhance the scene. I took some of my favourite photos here.

Views and reflections near the Swinging Bridge

Stoneman Meadow

We managed to find parking in busy Curry Village and from there had a walk around the Lower Pines area, including a boardwalk across a lovely meadow, Stoneman Meadow.

In Stoneman Meadow and Lower Pines

We had views towards the now-dry Staircase Falls below Glacier Point, which rarely flow beyond late June. There are some images of them with water on the World of Waterfalls website.

In Stoneman Meadow, looking towards Staircase Falls

Lower Yosemite Falls

We didn’t bother with the famous Mirror Lake trail which starts near here as we knew the lake would also be dry. So instead we started to drive back along the north side of the valley. By now the park was much busier so it was harder to watch the traffic, look for signs and be prepared to stop when anything looked worth doing so! But we managed to find parking near Yosemite Valley Lodge and from there walked back along the road and up the path to the Lower Yosemite Falls. Unlike Bridalveil Falls however, these were dry, although a damp streak on the rock showed where they would normally flow. But despite the lack of water in the falls this was still a lovely walk, with a sighting of a Steller’s Jay pecking insects from a tree trunk, and a squirrel.

The dry Lower Yosemite Falls and the Steller’s Jay

We walked back to the car through another lovely meadow, with views of the iconic Half Dome.

Views of Half Dome

Valley View

Our last stop in the Valley was at the very end, Valley View, where a short scramble down to the river’s edge put us in the perfect position for shots looking back down the Valley, with El Capitan prominent on the left side. My feature photo was taken here.

At Valley View

Glacier Point

But although we had left the Valley, we weren’t done with Yosemite yet. We drove the winding rode up to Glacier Point, another spot we had great memories of from our 1981 visit. It seemed to have become much more developed, or maybe our memories had somehow erased that development, recalling only the spectacular views! The latter certainly made the drive worthwhile and explained why so many other people wanted to come here!

Views of Yosemite Valley and Half Dome from Glacier Point

I last visited Yosemite in October 2024 when all these photos were taken. To see more of the national park have a look at my post about the previous day when we drove through the Tioga Pass: https://www.toonsarah-travels.blog/driving-and-walking-the-tioga-pass/

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