Yosemite Falls

You might think this is Mirror Lake, but it is Mirror Merced River, flooding the meadow and providing a perfect surface to show off Yosemite Falls in stereo. For our last morning in the Park we planned a loop walk around the Valley floor, up to the Falls, and back to the car. It was such a great plan, but brought to an abrupt end at the end of Swinging Bridge--the river was over its banks, stretching over the entire meadow and covering the familiar path back to Yosemite Lodge. The tree I have used for years to frame a view of Half Dome wasn't available for today's session, and probably won't be accessible for a good long while. And so concludes the water news from Yosemite. We've been coming to the Park for almost fifty years and have never seen anything like this display, though we realize that in former years we wouldn't have paid such close attention to the water levels. High or low, it wouldn't have been remarkable because it wasn't so dramatic. It was just water, taken for granted until taken away.