Day 6 – Sunrise and Sunset
Posted on 23. Jun, 2010 by Brad Cansler.
We woke up at 4:30 am to take photographs in Yosemite Valley. It was freezing or close to it. According to Sydney’s journal it was 200 degrees below zero. She was exaggerating slightly. It is funny though how quickly you get accustomed to 80 degree weather and 40 feels very cold. We took photographs all over the valley floor for about four hours and then headed back to our hotel for breakfast.
Yosemite View Lodge continued to impress us. They had a breakfast buffet that was quite good and included a large array of food to choose from. 
After checking out we headed to the ranger station for the ranger led program and for Sydney to get her Junior Ranger badge. After the program, Sydney talked to the ranger a long time, asked several questions about the park and told her all the extra activities she had completed. The ranger asked Sydney to answer any questions anyone had about the program the ranger had just given and said she would be right back. She came back with a special limited edition patch which she said she wasn’t really supposed to give away. Sydney was so proud and excited.
We spent the rest of the day hiking – Yosemite Falls, Cooks Meadow and Mirror Lake.
Sydney was very proud of herself for finding this spot in the middle of Cook’s Meadow. She drug us over to show us the view she had found.
The last time Brad and I had hiked to Mirror Lake (1983), there was this beautiful lake with the reflection of Half Dome as well as other peaks in the water. No one told me that over the years the lake had filled in with sediment and trees. I was pretty disappointed when we arrived and there was no lake – more like some puddles (ok, so now I’m exaggerating). Still it is amazing what a photographic artist can do.
We were staying at Wawona Hotel at the south entrance of the park which was about an hour drive from the valley because the road is under construction. By the time we got there it was late – again. We checked in and then asked about some place that might still be open for dinner. They directed us out of the park to Fish Camp where we found Jackalopes. We all enjoyed our very late meal. 
We tried to be quiet as we got ready for bed because we knew our neighbors could hear every sound we made. We knew this because we could hear one of them snoring and it sounded as if he was in the same room. We stayed in the newer building so we had our own bathroom – that was worth the extra money. While I was finding outlets to plug in all our batteries, Brad was busy copying off the day’s images. The outlets were so old we couldn’t plug in the laptop so it was fortunate we had a full battery. When Brad and I finally climbed in bed, I think we passed out as fast as Sydney had.
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Day 7 – Tioga Pass
Posted on 23. Jun, 2010 by Brad Cansler.
We just couldn’t do it. We could not force ourselves to get up early again after going to bed after mid-night – again. We slept in. By the time we woke up, took showers and packed up, breakfast was over. Wawona was such an interesting hotel. I wish we had actually done more there than just sleep. The 130 year old victorian-style lodge was very quaint with a gracious charm.
We walked over to the National Park Visitor Center and Sydney got a Wawona cancellation stamp. We talked with the ranger about Tioga Pass and how long the drive was to Tuolumne Meadows and places to hike. The last two times Brad and I were here, the road was closed from winter snows. There was a little store right around the corner so I picked up some bananas, OJ and chocolate milk to eat with our trail mix for breakfast. We were all satisfied and ready for the days adventures
The first meadow we came to as we turned on Tioga Road we saw a brown bear. That makes three so far for the trip. We stopped many more times along the way to take photographs. If there were rocks to climb on or a waterfall to climb to, Sydney found them. It was amazing, each time we stopped, we didn’t know whether it was time for a jacket or short sleeves. There were micro climates everywhere; although the farther we went, the cooler it became. We spent a while at Olmsted Point and Brad said this was where he wanted to be for sunset. So we looked at the clock when we left and decided how long we could drive before we had to turn around and start back to make it by sunset.
The visitor center was not open for the summer yet but we went to the park entrance at Tioga Pass. There was a beautiful lake that was covered in ice; it was broken up so it looked like little icebergs. It was really cool because you could see where the ice was larger under the water than on top. It has such an amazing look with the blue color of the ice under the water. We had come to the point in our journey where we had to turn back.
We got back to Olmsted Point just in time for sunset. We went different directions so we had different images. Sunset happens pretty quickly so you don’t have a lot of time to move from one place to another. Then while Brad did some more photographs of the after glow, Sydney stacked rocks to create a cairn trail marker. (Hers is the smaller stack.) Kids and rocks – it’s like PB&J.
Sydney took this last photograph of the after glow, considering that she hand held it I was amazed that it was sharp. We made it back to Yosemite View Lodge to grab pizza ten minutes before they closed, whew!. Back to the room, Sydney was asleep when her head hit the pillow. Brad copied off photographs while I got tomorrows clothes out and prepared us for a 4:30 am wakeup call. We are in bed after mid-night again. No big surprise here. Is this vacation or work, Oh well it sure is fun.
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Day 8 – Leaving Yosemite headed for Kings
Posted on 23. Jun, 2010 by Brad Cansler.
The plan was to do sunrise photographs from Tunnel View – it was the road to Wawona just before the tunnel. When we got there Brad decided that this was not going to give him what he was looking for so we jumped in the car and headed for Glacier Point. With all the curves, it takes longer to get there than you think it could. We quickly jumped out and we were able to get a couple of neat photographs of the sun just coming up behind Half Dome.
There were hang gliders getting set up for a morning run. Syd was fascinated with all the chipmunks that were everywhere and we had a deer cross the path just a few feet in front of us. Brad grabbed a quick tourist family photograph. We are going to take the rest of our photographs with sunglasses on so you don’t see the lack of sleep in our eyes.
As we made our way back down the mountain Brad saw a place he wanted to stop. He did a photograph that reminded me a little of Monet’s water lilies.
We headed back to our hotel to eat breakfast and before we set out to our new destination. It was noon when we finally left Yosemite for Kings Canyon.
Once we had internet service again, I started searching for some place to stay. No one had any rooms. Finally, we got through to a place called the Snow Line Lodge just outside Kings Canyon National Park. We stopped for a late lunch – early dinner at Baja Fresh in Fresno and then went by Trader Joe’s to pick up some apples, bananas, peanut butter and cinnamon bread – everything we could want for breakfast tomorrow.
It took most of the afternoon to get to Kings. We made a quick stop by our hotel to check in and then dashed back out again to go in the park and look for where we would do photographs the next morning. We found a pretty nice place and then drove on down to Hume Lake. It was dark when we got there and as we walked up to the lake there were several deer grazing right beside us. The lake was so still and beautiful with the moon reflecting in the water. This looked like it would be a great place to come back to.
By the time we got back to Snow Line Lodge we thought we would have to tiptoe to our room but there were still people awake relaxing in the hot tub. At least we didn’t wake anyone up this time. Brad performed his nightly ritual with one new twist. The hard drive on the computer was totally full so we had bought some DVD’s in Fresno to write photographs on, then delete off the laptop to make room for more (Brad had packed light bringing only one external harddrive). With the phone set for sunrise, we finally fell in bed.
