Shoreline Trees in Morning Light, Upper Cathedral Lake

Posted on 12 October 2009

Morning light illuminates a row of shoreline trees and autumn meadow with granite slopes beyond at Upper Cathedral Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

During the final weekend of September I briefly joined five other photographers (and a painter) at Upper Cathedral Lake in the Yosemite National Park back-country near Tuolumne Meadows. (The rest of this group was there for a full week, and I only joined them for two days.)

For a location so close to “civilization” (the trailhead in Tuolumne Meadows is only 3.5 miles away) the Cathedral Lakes area provides an astonishing wealth of photographic subjects. There are two lakes, and the pointed summit of Cathedral Peak looms nearby. But beyond that the lakes are surrounded by huge masses of glaciated granite slabs, domes, and peaks. There are beautiful meadows and surrounding forest. A short climb away are the alpine peaks of the Cathedral Range.

While the other photographers ventured further from the base camp at Upper Cathedral, I chose to work closer to camp. On the first evening I wandered up a nearby rocky gully, shooting fall foliage and granite formations. I eventually topped out and climbed out onto the smooth dome-like glaciated surface overlooking the upper lake and with a clear view of Cathedral Peak. Very early the next morning I was up and starting a 3 hour circumnavigation of this small lake, photographing the water, the shoreline rocks, the meadows, the surrounding peaks, and in this photo the forest and groves of trees than surround the lake.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Category: Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite
Tags: autumn, backlight, backpack, beach, boulder, bowl, brown, california, camp, cathedral, dry, fall, forest, golden, grove, high, hike, lake, landscape, large, light, meadow, morning, mountains, national, nature, nevada, park, photo, photography, pine, range, reflection, rock, sand, scenic, season, shadow, shore, shoreline, sierra, small, stock, surface, tree, upper, usa, water, yosemite

2 comments to Shoreline Trees in Morning Light, Upper Cathedral Lake

Chris

says:

October 12, 2009 at 5:34 am

I love this picture Dan! I wish that I could be nearer yosemite to make so many trips! I love that place. I do have nice stuff here in vegas, but I want to be close to everything!

G Dan Mitchell

says:

October 12, 2009 at 10:56 am

Thanks, Chris. Yes, this is a beautiful place! I’m currently working on turning this image into a print – turns out to a bit more complicated than with certain other scenes.

Dan