2023 Trip Chronicles: Page 7

Pothole Dome 8/24

After returning home from the Ritter Range backpack on 8/12, I didn't return to the Sierra Nevada as quickly as expected that was in part waiting for a sunny weather window plus allowing my trip to sync with a road camping meet up with brother J that had work constraints. Thus late morning on Wednesday August 23, drove across the valley and up into Yosemite via SR120, over Tioga Pass, then down to Lee Vining. I overnighting near the Mobile Mart in order to work areas of Mono Lake in the morning. At this late August period, the preferred dawn sun angle is realized from the easiest to reach Old Marina shore. I was surprised at all the people at the mart that was closing an hour later than in the past, but then in reflection realized that was a result of the Tuolumne Meadows camps and store being shut down in order for them to work on infrastructure. The park had already accomplished much during the brief summer season they are able to. Any people driving into the park for daytime activities or needing public campgrounds were now using Lee Vining as a base despite the 20 mile drive.

After a night near an annoying bright streetlight I won't ever park near again, got up in the dark at dawn Thursday August 24, 2023 then drove the short distance to Old Marina that is just north of the Inyo NF visitor center. With clear skies and seemingly clear air, there were breezes on the waters. More importantly because of the huge winter snowpack and greater melting flows into the lake, the lake level has been rising all summer to the extent shoreline water edge areas are more difficult to access. Considerable shallow shores inundating marsh vegetation now dominates. I was able to find a way through the maze to a spot, set up, but then watched a mediocre dawn color sequence that told me something far to the unseen east over the horizon was not as clear as air over the Mono Basin. As the rising night edge rose, I packed up my camera gear, returned to my Forester, drove back west on SR120 over Tioga Pass into Yosemite, through Tuolumne Meadows to park at a spot west of the open to sun paved Pothole Dome main parking lot.

That is the traditional backdoor parking lot for those traveling north down the shortcut west side Tuolumne River cross country route bypassing the east of river Pacific Crest Trail. I have used that route for decades, but for my use, it was just a shortcut to a less visited ridge section of Pothole Dome I'd surveyed on August 12. All parts of the highway areas east of Olmsted Point have been involved in the infrastructure upgrades that includes creating many more paved parking areas with restrooms, small paved pullouts, and actual curbs that prevent pulling off the highway in some usual spots. Many of the dirt pullouts including the one I parked at have also been graded and nicely overlaid with more robust gravel. The best thing about these cruder pullouts west of Pothole is a few are nicely enclosed by shading lodgepole pine. The most significant roadside change along SR120 in the meadows is there is no longer all that annoying, barely off the roadside dirt parking for the large numbers hiking up to Cathedral Lakes. Those folks now have a large parking lot with restrooms a bit east in the forest. That will also tend to inhibit the many inconsiderate visitors that used that parking to wander into the nearby forest areas and illegally camp, including its many illegal fire pits.

The route from the roadside pullouts to the backside of Pothole, unlike the use route de facto trail down the river, has no signs of a use route within its heavy forest. Not much of what lies ahead is visible and that insures few ever go that way haha. By hiking up east through typical forest litter about 50 feet vertical perpendicular to the road, one reaches the top of a moraine extending north of the south end of Pothole. From there, one must angle off to the right blindly towards a cliff-like side of Pothole dome down a bit through dense trees while avoiding the shallow forest pond below that is hidden until close. Not doing, results in needing to monkey over unpleasant downed logs and shore vegetation. Rounding the south side of the quiet, mosquitoey, sedge, heather, lily, frog pond, one pushes through the trees and comes upon a granite bedrock zone with a route challenge to reach the top of the dome. There is one trivial Class 2 monkey left route up to the top and a second less obvious route to the right that requires a bit of careful hands free zigzag Class 2 friction walking. A person could spend hours in that zone of Pothole without ever meeting visitors from the popular paved parking area venturing up on the dome.

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Sunrise at this time of late summer is a bit before 7am PDT. I had to wait some before the low altitude sun was high enough to optimize shadowing on the above southwest oriented 30mm single row 3 column stitch blend image's small erratic boulder bedrock landscape as well as provide a better green for forest trees that otherwise tend to be dark. Thus, I held off on any exposures till 8am. Lodgepole pine, pinus contorta, Unicorn Peak, The Cockscomb, Echo Peaks, Cathedral Peak, Eichorn Pinnacle, Marmot Peak, Fairview Dome, and Medlicott Dome. Quite an impressive backdrop of famous summits. All Cathedral Peak granite with its huge feldspar crystals that make its climbing so glorious with hand holds matching those on urban climbing walls. Not only are the knobby feldspar crystals more visible in the low sun altitude image but also areas of still smooth glacial polish resulting from some of the deepest glacial depths at 2000 feet during neocene ice ages. The trick for the photographer with a tripod is to find geometrically aesthetic locations that vaguely line up boulders with the background peaks. Note the still melting snows on shaded areas of the peaks that one would normally see about early July. Other advantages to shooting just an hour and change after sunrise are the distant snow and foreground granite areas are less contrasty.

Generally Pothole Dome quickly by mid morning becomes blindingly bright. Mid day, the dome is an ideal place for those interested in working on their summer tan, to walk about just wearing shorts or swimsuit attire with hat, sunglasses, and their bottle of favorite cold drink. Few mosquitoes even when numerous down in adjacent meadow areas, ever venture up into these bedrock slabs as at their scale it is like the Sahara Desert.

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My second subject 15 minutes later, also a 3 column stitch with my sharp Sigma 30mm APS-C prime lens, was this same erratic boulder expanse but due north towards the Pothole Dome ridge line. I had worked the subject on August 12, but that was later in the morning with less shadowing, so knew it had to be re-shot. The spaced skyline pines in blue sky are a nice aesthetic complement.

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With the granite landscape soon becoming harsh, I was on my way back to my vehicle. Along the way, I reached another tripod location I'd scoped out on August 12, where Marmot Dome and Fairview Dome line up with what I call, The Coneheads, haha. Note Marmot Dome is not an official feature on the USGS topographic map, much like a list of other well known climber summits. It's granite surface features are rather beautiful on my full 6000 by 4000 pixel image shot with my 85mm Sony prime lens. The further distance, taller, much more famous Fairview Dome is a perfect match from this spot. Trees below also include mountain hemlock, tsuga mertensiana and mountain white pine, pinus monticola.

By 9am, I was driving east, then into then along the road to the horse stables west of Lembert Dome at the PCT trailhead. Although I was probably too late for best photography light, there were next day advantages for surveying old photo areas along the east side of the Tuolumne River before the north end of Tuolumne Meadows. Thus parked and rambled a couple miles, half off trail down the heavily traveled Pacific Crest Trail. A southeast monsoon flow pushed in over the Eastern Sierra adding to breezes, making photography in any case difficult. I was able to figure out the best off trail route and where I needed to work the following morning. By early afternoon was back at the trailhead. I then drove to busy Lembert Dome where I cooked some lunch under the cloudy skies. Late afternoon returned to Pothole Dome but skies remained cloudy so at sunset returned east over Tioga Pass to overnight inside my Forester again.

After another less than pleasant roadside night I won't ever park near again, got up at sunrise on Friday August 25, 2023, then drove west back into Yosemite to the PCT parking lot and more efficiently rambled the 2 miles to where I had visited Thursday. Waiting most of an hour, at 9:45am worked a couple modest subjects not embedded herein and then at 10:15am at page top a wonderful image showing the river, famous peaks, and on the other side of the river a fly fisherman. For an enlarged view of the fisherman, select the enlarged vertical slice view.

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This next image above is a view downstream from that same bedrock river zone and again captured the same fly fishermen but casting into a downstream river pool. This weak image had a bit too much shade at frame right due to tall pines. At upper frame right is a black lichen covered dome with excellent early morning views, I've been atop during past years via a Class 2 monkey climb. The PCT routes a bit in front of that through the lodgepole forest. At skyline frame left are areas northeast of Glen Aulin.

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Continuing down the bedrock cascades, the above image is the last spot where one can view peaks in the distance before the river descends into areas behind forest. A small bedrock puddle from recent rains allowed a foreground with river smoothed granite, a bit of glacial polish, and a mirror reflection of Unicorn Peak. The Cockscomb is just right. Although the river water looks inviting, this summer due to large amounts of higher elevation still melting snow fields, it was unusually cold. Along with still images posted herein, I also recorded a few A6000 1080p videos that after future Adobe Premiere 2021 processing will be added to my Youtube video collection. In any case, youtube videos take much more time and effort to process and for which I have a huge multi-year backlog haha. Included will be an impressive waterwheel section just below these pools, though the wheels are smaller than smaller than those a few miles below at Waterwheel or Le Conte Falls.

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After returning to the trailhead before midday, I drove back to my shady Pothole Dome parking spot, made lunch, then napped. Later in the afternoon returned to the previous day's location but instead of waiting an hour, decided to drop down to the west side of the river for some fun from where I had worked during morning where an expanse of level granite slabs exist. After all the hiking during this day, as is my style of getting into even cold water, took a refreshing dunk in the river. There, I shot this modest image above looking eastward. Note the wood debris up on the granite delineating a high water mark probably during a late spring June rain event. Also note the river splits creating a vegetated island at frame left.

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After my river visit, some sun, and dip in the river, and working a couple image subjects, I was a bit later returning to my most important subject above by about 15 minutes. Thus will likely return in the future and re-shoot this unusual subject. Key is warm illumination on the boulders with little on the bedrock surface in order for best contrast. The air clarity could also be better as the previous day's showers put quite a bit of hazy white water vapor into the atmosphere, reducing brightness of more distant elements. In any case, a nice image but just not as strong as I've already witnessed. Because of constant sun azimuth and altitude changes during the summer, this landscape won't look like this except during limited dates.

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Although the above image missed, the above next final image of that day was at the optimal time of 7:45pm within nice slightly warm yellow sunlight. Pothole Dome glacial erratics with Cathedral Peak, Eichorn Pinnacle, Marmot Dome, Fairview Dome, Medlicott Dome. As a bonus, another photographer with a daypack, handholding a zoom lens was hiking up the west end of the dome. Because I focus stacked this single frame image, I captured his positions with an infinity focus 3 times so during my manual Zerene Stacker selection for that section of the landscape, chose the shot above where he best stands out. For a better view of his silhouette, select the enlarged vertical slice view. Note the dry grasses in this area. Although the majority of landscapes in the Tuolumne Meadows zone were still unusually green at this late time of summer, here atop bright sun exposed granite bedrock, the intense radiation off the rock cooked those grasses rapidly after snow melted off probably about late June.

NEXT: Page 8 TBD
2023 Trip Chronicles: Contents

David Senesac
email: info@davidsenesac.com
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