{"id":2536,"date":"2016-02-28T13:51:03","date_gmt":"2016-02-28T21:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/?p=2536"},"modified":"2019-03-15T19:07:24","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T02:07:24","slug":"yosemite-in-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/2016\/02\/28\/yosemite-in-spring","title":{"rendered":"Yosemite in Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Went to Yosemite to catch the lighting of the Horsetail Falls at sunset.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-photo alignright\">\n<a title=\"Horsetail Falls at Sunset\" href=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1546\/25340214756_41591ed88b_k_d.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1546\/25340214756_1c5e38977b_m.jpg\" alt=\"Horsetail Falls at Sunset\" width=\"158\" height=\"240\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Horsetail Falls at Sunset<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<p>The phenomenon only happens for a few weeks each year when the sun aligns with the falls, there is sufficient snowmelt flowing, and little cloud cover at sunset. It was originally photographed by Galen Rowell in 1973, and each year hundreds of photographers try to replicate it. We were there at the tail end of this year&#8217;s window, but still got a good view on Saturday. After a nice hike to Mirror Lake in the morning, we arrived in the El Capitan picnic area with maybe 50 others at 3pm for a 5:30 sunset. We moved our camp chairs a bit away from the crowd, so we could enjoy some champagne and solitude. I fiddled with my tripod and settings, deciding on a tight 200mm shot, and Wendi chose a wider 50mm. Ruth sketched, and Zach climbed a tree. After the sunset, and the kids screaming &#8220;it&#8217;s happening!&#8221;, we stayed until dark to see star trails, and the lights of climbers heading up the nose.<\/p>\n<p style=\"clear:both;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-photo\"><a title=\"Shadows on Half Dome\" href=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1660\/24739587093_b52076bda3_b.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1660\/24739587093_b52076bda3_m.jpg\" alt=\"Shadows on Half Dome\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Shadows on Half Dome<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"inline-photo\"><a title=\"Half Dome from Mirror Lake\" href=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1534\/24735637974_f3033bc3c9_b.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1534\/24735637974_f3033bc3c9_m.jpg\" alt=\"Half Dome from Mirror Lake\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Half Dome &amp; Mirror Lake<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"inline-photo\"><a title=\"Leaving the Valley\" href=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1700\/24998856079_b9fc751260_b.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1700\/24998856079_b9fc751260_m.jpg\" alt=\"Leaving the Valley\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Leaving the Valley<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"inline-photo\"><a title=\"Starlight over El Capitan\" href=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1641\/24735814974_699d58edc3_b.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1641\/24735814974_699d58edc3_m.jpg\" alt=\"Starlight over El Capitan\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Starlight over El Capitan<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday we hiked into Hetch Hetchy, a valley almost as grand as Yosemite that was dammed in 1923 to make a reservoir for San Francisco. The city has great drinking water, but drowned a natural wonder.<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-photo\"><a title=\"O\\'Shaugnessy Dam\" href=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1719\/25070532750_aaea10e09a_b.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1719\/25070532750_aaea10e09a_m.jpg\" alt=\"O'Shaugnessy Dam\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>O&#8217;Shaugnessy Dam<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"inline-photo\"><a title=\"Kolana Rock\" href=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1533\/24735932004_51eb1b96e9_b.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1533\/24735932004_51eb1b96e9_m.jpg\" alt=\"Kolana Rock\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Kolana Rock<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"inline-photo\"><a title=\"Wapama Falls\" href=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1628\/24998911809_af9b6bc159_b.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1628\/24998911809_af9b6bc159_m.jpg\" alt=\"Wapama Falls\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Wapama Falls<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Went to Yosemite to catch the lighting of the Horsetail Falls at sunset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-california","category-outdoors"],"geo":{"latitude":37.8651009,"longitude":-119.5383301,"description":"Yosemite National Park, California, USA"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2536"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3221,"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2536\/revisions\/3221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}