Yosemite in winter

Yosemite has always been my favourite National Park.  It was the first ever National Park I visited when I first arrived in California decades ago and the first one I introduced to my children.  I have been back many times, but always in the spring or summer.  This is the first time I have ventured to the Park in the winter and was surprised at how accessible it was. Of course the week following our visit, 15 feet of snow fell in the area and the Park had to be closed.  Talking about luck!

While most of the park was accessible when we were there, we only did short hikes.  Clambering down to the river bank through the ice and snow was no easy task even with the assistance of crampons, walking stick and helping hands.  I'm glad I've visited before because a winter visit like this doesn't really give one a true picture of the park. We rose early to catch the light from the rising sun and stayed late to catch the glow from the setting sun - twice on Horsetail Falls (the renowned "Fire Fall") and twice at Tunnelview for the panoramic valley view.  

Come join me to experience Yosemite in winter.

Day 1  We drove up to the Park from Fresno, getting there mid-morning.

Our first view of El Capitan - standing on guard

The most photographed El Capitan - side profile

El Capitan and Three Brothers

Many of these weird looking trees, this one half burnt, in this area

The famous "Firefall" phenomenon, which usually happen over the course of about three weeks in February, requires the convergence of clear skies, the right amount of snowmelt and the right temperature. As sunset nears, the mist catches the sun rays and creates a fabulous optical phenomenon that lasts up to 10 minutes,  Crowds gather in the El Capitan picnic area a couple of hours before sunset to get the perfect spot to photograph this - photographers were lined up almost one on top of another (this doesn't really affect their view as the falls are very high up (7200 ft). Because of the crowd, cars are not allowed in the area and it's a1.5 mile hike in.

Just one small corner of the crowd

We lucked out on our first day in the park, perfect sky and temperature for a magnificent Firefall, which we almost missed.  The golden hour glow suddenly died down and we thought the Firefall wasn't going to happen and started packing like the people around us. One kid complained that his family was there for three years and couldn't see the Firefall.  Sadly, he left with his family. But all of a sudden the red glow came back much redder than the golden hour glow and we scrambled to get our shots!

Horsetail Fall in the golden hour just before the "Firefall"moment

"Firefall"!!

Day 2

We got up early for sunrise although we couldn't really see the actual sunrise because we were low in the valley surrounded by tall mountains.  We did catch the early morning mist on El Capitan and watched as it dissipated giving place to a beautiful reflection of the sunlit clouds on the Merced river.

Early morning mist that continued to move on the mountains across from El Capitan

Soft morning glow

Three Brothers in the morning light

We spent an afternoon on the Yosemite Valley loop trail although we didn't really walk very far as there were many curious remnants of trees strewn along the trail.  These make time-consuming photography subjects. 

Strange markings on some trunks

Upper Yosemite Falls

We drove up to Tunnelview Overlook to catch the sunset on the valley.  We were a little disappointed that the mist had covered up Half Dome and kept waiting for it to dissipate.  As it turned out, this golden mist was actually more beautiful than the red sunset glow we would see on Day 4, never mind that Half Dome is missing!