Photo Journal

Well, it's been an exciting week in Yosemite. First the fire, then the rock fall, then the earthquake. It's been pretty impressive to look at, but frightening too. As of this moment, Foresta is still evacuated, the Big Oak Flat road into Yosemite Valley is closed (call 209-372-0200 then 1 and 1 for latest road updates.

Well, I'm guessing that some genius climbers who were moving slow got benighted and decided to stay warm with a fire. Someone said they saw a fire up there on Monday night. Anyway, they started a fire basically at the point that the walkoff for the Royal Arches route meets the rim. Bad climber! No chalk!

I first noticed the smoke while out for a lunchtime walk to meet my sweetheart and then the helicopters came around 2:00pm. I didn't see any flames until someone roused us around 7:30pm to go have a look. I got some pretty decent pictures of the fire on top of Royal Arches (9 images), but there were a couple of times when it really flared up and i was not ready with the camera, so I missed those. I also missed the best of the firefalls. By 8:00pm there was a substantial fire on the ledges that were below tree line. We could see them clearly through the trees, but couldn't really get pictures and I didn't want to cross the valley to get a better look, but I think the Royal Arches climbing route was on fire. That's unconfirmed, just my guess as looking at it from Stoneman's Meadow. Good job dude!

We've been getting a lot of snow lately and I finally have done my weekly update to the photo journal after seven months. Seven months, seven days, what's the difference? The beauty of Yosemite is eternal right? Anyway, you can see a selection of snow valley scenes from the week if you wish.

Several people have recently noticed some Great Horned Owls in the Black Oak trees near the eastern trailhead for the Lower Yosemite Falls trail. According to long-time Valley locals, we should be expecting baby owls any moment - fluffy tennis balls with big eyes. Cute enough to warrant a trip to the Owl Tree in the wee hours of the morning...

The old Glacier Point Firefall is long gone, but every February and, as this picture shows, even in March, when conditions are right, Horestail Falls on El Capitan provide a nice natural firefall.

I took this picture of Middle Cathedral and a couple similar ones of Bridal Veil Falls around dawn after a snowstorm. Unfortunately, I was caught out without a tripod and took these handheld at around 1/20 of second, so in addition to the noise from the low light, there's a fair bit of blur. Oh well. It was a beautiful scene.

We've been getting some snow and some nice light as you can see from that photo of Half Dome after Thanskgiving snows and from the one below of Yosemite Falls. Click on a photo to see a couple more.

The leaves are turning in Yosemite and the animals are trying to fatten up for winter. This busy squirrel was munching like a lawn-mower amongst the golden leaves of autumn. It was moving at hyperspeed, unlike the laconic squirrels of summer, bloated from the french fries that tourists feed them. In particular, this little guy seemed to be focused on the small buds on the plants. At higher elevations, autumn is in full swing, but in the Valley it's definitely not yet peaked.

A typical sign of the end of summer in Yosemite Valley and the surrounding area: as summer wanes, Sierra Lessingia (lessingia leptoclada) flourishes. A late-blooming flower, it currently dominates the southwest corner of Ahwahnee Meadow as well as our yard in Yosemite West.

I previously mentioned that Marc Herremans was going to attempt to climb El Cap. Now, I've put up some pictures of Marc and his team starting up El Cap. He didn't make it, but he might try again.