Mid Sierra Musings: Yosemite: Photographs From Washburn Point, Glacier Point And Sentinel Dome

Saturday, September 30, 2017

Yosemite: Photographs From Washburn Point, Glacier Point And Sentinel Dome

Dale Matson

Click On Photographs To Enlarge

One of the perks of living in Fresno California is relatively quick access to Yosemite National Park. I can leave my home and be at the south gate of Yosemite in an hour and at the end of Glacier Point Road in only an additional hour (2 hours total). This means I can head up in the early morning, get some iconic shots from these three great locations and be back home in the afternoon.

What never fails to amaze me is discovering geographic features from these locations I had not previously realized. This trip I realized one could see Mt. Conness from both Washburn Point and Sentinel Dome. Mt. Conness is on the eastern edge of the Park and an important part of the Ansel Adams classic photograph of Tenaya Lake. Of the three locations, I think Sentinel Dome provides the least people and most (360 degrees) perspectives. I don’t park in the lot by the toilets, which fill up pretty fast in the morning. I continue on, begin the descent to Washburn and Glacier Points and park across Glacier Point Road from a gated service road. I then walk up the road till it intersects the regular trail. This involves a tad more up hill walking but less distance hiking.

The biggest problem is that the best lighting for photographs is later in the afternoon when these areas have the most traffic. I never go there on the weekends!

There are controlled burns along Glacier Point Road, which diminish the photographs.

When I was younger, I often skied Glacier Point Road for photographs and used snowshoes to climb Sentinel Dome. The air is pristine in the winter with few folks who are willing to do the 21-mile ski from Badger Pass to Glacier Point and back.

Glacier Point Road Winter

On this occasion I used my Sony A7R2 and 24-70mm 2.8 GM lens and an adapted Canon 400mm f4 lens. I also coupled it with a 1.4X extender. This provided some unique shots and brought distant feature very close. I think the best lens combination for these locations would be the 24-70mm and 70-200mm lenses.