Yosemite

Mid-March, in the final official days of winter, storms took shape and hit California as a whole. I was invited last minute by my buddy Leif to tag along for a quick trip up to Yosemite with the purpose of getting epic pictures. He rented a car with awd and we fortunately stayed inside the valley at the Majestic Yosemite hotel. This allowed us to drive around with heated seats and to different viewpoints and hiking trails. The park was probably as empty as it could ever be. 

Upper Yosemite Falls  

Sun rising somewhere behind half dome  

We hiked up to Mirror Lake

A lot of trails were closed and had too much snow so we roamed through the paths in the meadows

Saturday morning cleared up for a few hours and then more weather with snow passed though preventing us from getting any sunset photos. This is upper and lower Yosemite Falls from a meadow 

The somewhat famous church in the valley.  

some paw prints in the snow, I think we found the source. They were jumping in the air and landing nose first into the snow to find mice or something under the cold snow. 

Swinging Bridge 

Walking to the Vernall Falls trail. Another bridge with Yosemite Falls. First light and El Capitan plus Bridal Veil Falls. Hiking up to Mirror Lake. Center: Half Dome from Mirror Lake 

Comparing Saturday morning to Sunday morning from tunnel view  

I ordered a cheap polarizing filter coincidentally just before the trip. It helps my camera cut glare and pull in truer colors of sky. 

It was sunny for a few hours on Saturday which played a big part in melting the snow, I kept getting hit by ice and snow flaking off trees. Two views of the tunnel. The pulled-back view of the photographers Saturday morning. Mirror lake.