Hugh and Mara

Tuolumne Meadows; Horseman VHR, Fuji Velvia 50

Mara and I spent our first summer as National Park Service volunteers where we helped out the interpretation division while living in Tuolumne Meadows (Yosemite National Park). Some of our responsibilities included working in the Visitor Center, the Junior Ranger Program (Mara), photo walks (Hugh), Coffee with a Ranger (our favorite), and helping out with programs at the Parsons Memorial Lodge.

The best part of our job was living next to Parsons Lodge at the historic Macauley Cabin. In 1898 the Macauley brothers purchased this 160 acre homestead previously owned by Jean-Baptiste Lembert. Here they grazed cattle and rented pasture to visitors passing through. Mara and I had it much easier than these early pioneers. We had the luxury of running water and electricity!

Parsons Lodge and adjacent Soda Springs is an amazingly important landmark because it is where the concept of the Sierra Club was first conceived. Also, it was here that Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of Century Magazine, encouraged John Muir to write about Yosemite in hopes of someday preserving it and protecting it from practices such as mining, logging, and sheep herding. This meeting took place around a campfire at Soda Springs in 1889, and in 1890 Yosemite officially became a national park. Later John Muir, William Colby, and Edward Parsons fought tooth and nail over the protection of Hetch Hetchy Valley. This battle ended in 1913 with the passage of the Raker Act (i.e. an act of Congress) which resulted in the building of the Hetch Hetchy Dam used today to provide drinking water to San Francisco. Parsons Lodge was built in 1915 as a base of operations for mountain forays and as a meeting place to discuss the protection of the Sierra Nevada and later the world.

Living at the Macauley Cabin for the summer allowed us to become completely absorbed with Tuolumne Meadows as a really large back yard that can be explored on foot. Furthermore, as a photographer, the Macauley Cabin is not a bad location to explore. Forest, meadows and granite domes are all within walking distance. All of the images in this post I took using a Nikon D300 digital slr or a Horseman VHR 6×9 view camera. For many days I didn’t make any photographs due to sunny blue skies that create harsh, unflattering light. My favorite images of the summer were taken close to sunset or during unstable summer weather that created marvelous clouds and interesting light. Unfortunately these days were not as common as I would have liked. We had only two real lightning storms. Still Mara and I plan to return next summer where we will continue to explore, photograph, and wait for storms.

One problem with photographing in a place like Yosemite is being distracted by iconic images. It is important also to just look for good light. The evening I discovered this elderberry, I found this granite wall just glowing from light reflected off of Tenaya Peak.

One of our most rewarding days was hiking up into the Cathedral Range on a day of persistent, changing clouds. The best part of this adventure was the fact that we didn’t have to drive to a trailhead. Instead we walked from the cabin about four miles up into the subalpine environments (a.k.a. The Range of Light).

After making it to a ridge we watched for lightning and enjoyed the sub alpine landscape. The white bark pine in the foreground has been windswept for possibly hundreds of years.

Our first backpack trip of the summer was to Townsley Lake. Despite a clear weather forcast from the phone and internet, we were greeted by high energy cumulous thunder heads that force me to take a two hour nap in our tiny single wall tent. Prior to the lightning show, Mara suggested we get closer to our dry tent. I assured her that the weather forecast said nothing about rain, thunder, or lightning and that this would pass very soon.

Throughout most of the summer, I offered a photography walks at 7:00 AM on Mondays. Usually, I find this time to be too late in the day to make good photographs. Ironically, the one morning that I didn’t have any participants, I ended up getting this image of sedges and clouds. I must say this composition has been ingrained in my mind since I first looked through William Neill’s The Promise of Wilderness.

In mid July I assisted with Michael Frye’s Hidden Yosemite Workshop. The workshop took place in Lee Vining at the Mono Inn. For five days participants explored the high country and the east side (eg Mono Lake). One cloudy late afternoon, we walked up Lundy Canyon while it was in full bloom. What intrigued me most about the day was how still it was along a lush sub alpine creek. While the entire group hiked on ahead, myself and another participant stayed. I have never seen Columbines that stayed so still, I could set up my view camera.