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WJMcIntosh
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Autumn Arrives In Yosemite
Autumn Arrives In Yosemite

I'd have to admit that I've been after a shot like this for quite a few years now. I've taken a shot from here with a wet road in the Spring, but opportunities for shots like this are a bit more rare in the Fall. Typically, the falls in Yosemite can stay dry well into November and the autumn colors can disappear after you get past that first week so it's a rare year indeed when you can shoot any of the falls in the valley before the Fall colors disappear for the year. I thought I might have a shot last year as it was raining when I arrived during the first week of November, but then 4 or 5 inches of snow fell overnight and Autumn came to an abrupt end.

This year, I showed up on a Thursday with the promise of rain in the forecast, but the NWS choked pretty hard on the forecast which went from 50% of showers to zero by the time I arrived in Oakhurst. My buddy Greg Boratyn showed up on Friday and we spent most of the weekend shooting the Autumn colors throughout the park. It seemed we had missed peak color for most of the park, but there were still a few pockets of color around, especially on the western end of the valley.

By Saturday morning, Greg was done. I told him I wanted to stay another day and that I was planning on sleeping in my car somewhere nearby and he looked at me like I was crazy. I told him there was a 40% chance of showers that night and I was really hoping to shoot the fall colors after the rain knowing that the colors would pop and that the road would be wet. He pulled out his own app and promised me that there was ZERO chance of rain that night. I said goodbye and shot the rest of the afternoon and then headed back down toward Oakhurst to get some signal, some gas and some food.

The next morning, I woke up at 2 AM after a few hours of sleep to check the weather...and sure enough, the forecast had changed to zero chance of rain. I grimaced and went back to sleep. When I arrived in the park just before sunrise, it was completely clouded over and I set up down near Swinging Bridge. I had only been shooting for a short time when I began to notice that it was beginning to sprinkle. And then suddenly it was raining. Not a huge downpour, but just enough to rinse off the leaves and to get the road wet. :)

Zero percent chance.

I was off like a shot to this location and arrived well before the Sunday crowds began to jam the roads. Between the Dogwoods and Oaks, the Western end of the valley was in rare form.


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Taken on: November 7, 2021
Tags: Everybody's photos tagged with Yosemite Yosemite Everybody's photos tagged with Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park Everybody's photos tagged with Autumn Autumn more » Everybody's photos tagged with Bridal Veil Fall Bridal Veil Fall « less
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