I spent the last weekend of October in Yosemite and nearby parts of the Eastern Sierra in search of fall color. My usual goal at this time of year is to photograph autumn in the valley, but I was a week or two too early for that this year. Fortunately there are still plenty of photographic opportunities including reflections in the calm Merced River, night skies, and colorful aspens just east of the park.
I reserved a tent cabin in Curry Village with some friends for two nights. Curry village is no longer the bargain it used to be, with heated tent cabins now running around $200 per night. At least we were able to split that three ways. We arrived in the early afternoon and dropped off our things in our tent before taking a drive around the valley scouting the conditions. We needed to pick places for sunset, night photos, and sunrise. Valley View (photo above) looked good for sunset as the clearing skies to the west would allow the sun to light up El Capitan. We picked a spot along the Merced River with a view of the Three Brothers for sunrise, and then drove to the trailhead for the 4-mile trail.
The skies were forecast to be clear and dark that evening and the Milky Way would be visible to the west at about 9:30PM. Unfortunately most of the iconic views around Yosemite Valley face to the east. My goal was to find a clear view looking west that included the backside of El Capitan on the right and the Cathedral Rocks on the left – essentially a “Reverse Tunnel View”. We started up the trail and once we cleared the trees we found a spot that should frame the Milky Way nicely.
With that scouting done we hiked back down the hill and drove over to Valley View for the late afternoon and sunset. The afternoon light was nice but unspectacular and the valley slowly moved into the shadows. The river was nice and calm, though, and I found a spot for my tripod that included the reflections of the mountains with the rocks in the river in pleasing locations. As sunset approached El Capitan turned bright red and the clouds in the sky picked up some color as well. This was a good start for the weekend!
After having dinner at Yosemite Lodge (at least it was reasonably quick) we made our way back to the 4-mile trail to hike back up the hill in the dark. Fortunately we were able to find the spot we had scouted earlier and set up to capture the stars.
The first thing I noticed when I started framing images was that the Wawona tunnel shone brightly in the background. I should have expected this, since that is the tunnel that gives the normal “Tunnel View” its name. After a bit I made my second discovery: Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) was visible next to El Capitan. I had thought I had missed my chance to photograph the comet and now realized I had the opportunity to capture something special. As it turned out, the comet disintegrated into the sun a few days later. My original goal was to center the stars in the valley, but I abandoned that with the comet in the scene.
The final image is a blend of three photographs. The sky is from a single exposure, but I averaged that image with two identical exposures taken right after it to reduce the amount of digital noise in the dark areas of the ground and to smooth out the lights of the cars in the valley.
I spent sunrise the next morning at one of my favorite spots along the Merced River. At this time of year, I usually photograph the Three Brothers reflecting in the calm water with some fall colors in the foreground. Soon after sunrise the mountains get some side light as the sun crests the mountains to the east. Having shot this scene a few times before, I brought a very wide 10mm (full frame) lens and played with including all of El Capitan along with the Three Brothers. The shapes of the mountains along with foreground trees and clouds formed a nice “X” guiding the eye to the center of the frame.
Of course I also had to shoot my normal subject from this spot, although a little wider than usual to show the grasses and bushes on the right.
After breakfast we drove along Tioga Road to look for spots for sunset and explore the fall colors on the eastern side of the mountains. As we made our way down the hill from Tioga Pass, I saw a lot of colorful aspens along Lee Vining Creek. We decided to drive up Lee Vining Canyon looking for good options and then worked our way back photographing the spots we had picked out. I was enamored with a bend in the creek surrounded by color and spent some time trying different compositions until I found the one below.
There was a campground surrounded by aspens a little further down the road and I wanted to get an image with the straight white trunks surrounded by leaves. I set up maybe 50 years away and used a zoom to isolate the trees I wanted.
At the same campground was a bend in the creek surrounded by backlit trees that seemed to glow in the afternoon light.
After lunch we did the same routine with Lundy Canyon, driving to the end and then working our way back. I stopped at a colorful hillside near Lundy Lake and again used a long lens to fill the frame with color.
I spent some more time walking along the road by the lake, looking for compositions including the trees. One of my goals was to find something “simple” as forests can be messy with a lot of distracting elements. I settles on these three aspen trunks surrounded by yellow, backlit leaves with the lake behind them.
We stopped at Olmsted Point in Yosemite on our way back over the pass. There was some interesting light and clouds when we got there and I had high hopes for sunset. The clouds just got thicker, though, so it was time to go get some dinner.
It was cloudy at sunrise the next morning and the light never broke through. I spent some time wandering around Cook’s Meadow and taking some photos of trees in the morning light.
I had seen some nice patches of color along Big Oak Flat Road the day before and I kept my eyes open as we made our way out of the park. These two pines surrounded by colorful leaves caught my eye and we stopped at a pullout in the road. I used a 500mm lens to zoom into the trees and leaves and avoid the distractions around them. We spent another half hour trying compositions in the forest but this was my favorite.
