5400 miles to Yosemite and back!! The Long Way!!

pathfinder

I feel like I'm a day late and a dollar short - I just arrived at the party as the guests are all leaving. Like 'gus, I just got home a couple of days ago, and had a ton of mail to go through, and a 1000+ frames to review and process, and/or discard. Lots and lots of discards:uhoh

My wife and I drove from central Indiana along I-70 through Kansas and Colorado, and then across Utah, down to Las Vegas. From there we travelled through Death Valley, over the mountains to HW 395, and up the eastern Sierras to Bishop, California ( home of Galen Rowell), and on over the Sierras north of Yosemite and on to Wawona. We took a brief side trip from Bishop to Mono Lake and shots the birds there as well.

So, it is hard to chose what to post. I think I will just try to post a few shots in roughly sequential order as we travelled.

In Goodland Kansas they are proud of being the Sunflower state, indeed so proud, that they have recreated an artist's easel of a van Gogh scene - it is hard to capture the scale, but this image may give a hint.... This is not a wide angle shot - 38mm on a full frame camera



It snowed and rained across most of Colorado, so we stayed in Green River Utah. But we did get a few shots of the Colorado National Monument and the roadside view in Utah.





We saw lots of wildflowers as well..

Indian Paintbrush. I believe


Western Wallflower, perhaps


and a dwarf evening primrose


Enroute to Las Vegas, we explored Kolob Canyon, the westernmost aspect of Zion Nat Park.






We stayed in Las Vegas overnight and saw a rainbow as we arrived



We looked at some neon for wxwax....






We skipped the casinos and left early the next morning for Death Valley.

Keep in mind that this pass is over 1500 feet above the valley floor.



The rider walking down the hil, had just low-sided a new K1200S with 137 miles on it. Fortunately he was not hurt - ATTGATT - He was wearing BMW apparel to match his bike. We offered him a ride to civilization, but he already had help on the way. We chatted about bikes for a while, and after we decided he was in good order, left him sitting on the top of the hill in the breeze.

Lots of neat old stuff to peruse scattered around the tourist info areas...





We crossed the mountains west of Death Valley - what a great twisty road to drive if you are not in a hurry!! - and spent the night in Bishop, California. Bishop is a small town in the Alabama hills east of Mount Whitney that is definately worth some time exploring. Galen Rowell's Mountain Light Gallery is there, but was closed when we arrived and was still closed by the time we left in the morning. We did see this one sunset though...




The next morning we started further north on 395 and had to stop at Mono Lake. I had heard of Mono Lake and its tufas, but not of its bird populations.
I will post my bird pictures in the Wildlife thread later.



Well, maybe you'll permit me one shot of a swallow on a tufa as it is so symbollic of Mono Lake..



Shortly after leaving Mono Lake, we passed the entrance to Manzanar. I had read about the camps for interning Japanese-American citizens during WII, but had never known where they were. Not much left now but the gate and the memories .....





The next stop was Yosemite and the Shoot Out at Yosemite, made possible by Baldy and Smugmug, Andy and Dgrin, and all the fine photogs who attended.

Thanks Baldy!! Thanks Andy!! Thanks everyone!!

Here is Andy doing some professional chimping...



I shot the usual Yosemite shots along with the group - Bridalveil falls



A reflection of Half Dome



A candid of Connie, at a too long shutter speed of 1/20th and on a self timer delay!! We've all done it, I suspect.



Merced river



El Capitain in the clouds, with a view camera photog in the foreground -



And a shot of Fern Spring, just for Ed.



A closeup for 'Gus - I think he shot this too, Sunday morning



A Northern Oriole I happened across on Sunday morning while looking at the horses for the carriage for the Wawona.



Here is my horse portrait for Lynnsite - she would have done so much better




And then before you knew it, it was time to leave and say good bye to everyone as they departed. Sam, Andy, Gus, Steve, Ian, Ed, Missy,Gubbs, Gary, Lark, Dee, Greaper, Catone, Michiel, Shay, I can't begin to remember everyone... I was overwhelmed and never very good with names.

Here are some of them at Fern Springs



And at the Merced River



We drove down through the Valley, past Tehatchepi and its wind farms, and on toward Arizona. We stopped in Winslow Arizona for lunch and to try to catch a glimpse of a girl, My Lord, in a flat-bed Ford. Lyrics by the Eagles' Glenn Frye and Jackson Browne.



We also passed through Holbrook Az and the famous WigWam motel



We stayed the night in Santa Rosa New Mexico and ate at the famous old route 66 restaurant - The Comet. A good source of Mexican food in eastern New Mexico




The next morning just left us Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Illinois to cross to get safely back home. Piece of cake.

What a great trip and the best part was meeting dgrinners from around the world. England, Nederland, Oz. What a great experience.

And even better, my wife enjoyed herself tremendously, and is looking forward to doing this again next spring.

wxwax

Some corkers in there, PF. It was a true pleasure meeting you and you wife. I'm sorry I didn't have more time to spend with you - your wife's a real charmer, very friendly.

Can't believe that guy dumped his new bike, what a bummer. :cry







You obviously know all the right places to visit, I'll have to touch base with you when I finally visit Death Valley etc.

ehughes

Wow, what a great set of pics.. It was truely a pleasure meeting you and Kathy. I hope you two had fun.

Thanks for the fern springs shot and the one of Connie. Trust me, when trying to get pictures of her, get that shutter speed up


Ed

DavidTO

Loved hearing about your journey. Looking forward to more pics. Great shots.

Makes me want to get in the car and just go....

pathfinder

wxwax wrote:

Some corkers in there, PF. It was a true pleasure meeting you and you wife. I'm sorry I didn't have more time to spend with you - your wife's a real charmer, very friendly.

Can't believe that guy dumped his new bike, what a bummer. :cry







You obviously know all the right places to visit, I'll have to touch base with you when I finally visit Death Valley etc.

The rider was not riding His bike - he was a factory rider - he had been a pro racer for a while. He had already called the company and they were sending a truck for him - from Ontario California. Maybe 6-8 hours away. I made sure he had plenty of water - he was going to have a long day. He was a real nice guy. The bike was down for the count.

The easel in Goodland Kansas must be three or fours stories tall. Wild! Just standing along side the road in town.

I lost some of my shots from Death Valley - I think I suffered from the glitch that some of the 1DsMkll's suffer with regarding large >2Gb cards. I changed from a 24-70 to the 70-200 in a hurry and did not power off the camera before changing lenses and it cost me about 30 frames in the depths of Death Valley. I did not lose frames before OR after - just in the middle. WIerd!!

Lots of neat things to shoot there though. Happy to help if I can with advice. Another image of the old car

pathfinder

ehughes wrote:

Wow, what a great set of pics.. It was truely a pleasure meeting you and Kathy. I hope you two had fun.

Thanks for the fern springs shot and the one of Connie. Trust me, when trying to get pictures of her, get that shutter speed up

Ed

Thank you so much for showing us around Yosemite Ed. We could not have done it without your able assistance.

Regarding Connie, my camera was still on the tripod, just not on the ground, and obviously set up for landscapes, not portraits, but I could not resist her smile. She's a sweetie, and put up with us all so nicely for the weekend.

lynnma

Thanks Pathfinder for a lovely trip.. I enjoyed your pictures so much.. I felt like "I was there". Looking forward to meeting you and your DW next year.

USAIR

Pathfinder
I agree thanks you taking us along on the trip
Very intresting and great photos all the way

Thanks
Fred

pathfinder

Glad you enjoyed my travelogue Lynn and Fred. Looking forward to meeting more dgrinners in years to come

Nikolai

Great trip, great pictures!
And you and your wife were great ppl to meet!
Cheers!

ian408

PF, nice to meet you and the mrs!

Loved your tour! Especially, those "Southern Zion" shots

Good on you for stopping for the rider. That neck of the woods can be
hazardous this time of year. Lots of sand and gravel on the roads.

Andy

excellent series. it was great to meet you and kathy in person, pf thanks for sharing your trip - all i can say is "more" !!!!!!!!!!

pathfinder

ian408 wrote:

PF, nice to meet you and the mrs!

Loved your tour! Especially, those "Southern Zion" shots

Good on you for stopping for the rider. That neck of the woods can be
hazardous this time of year. Lots of sand and gravel on the roads. Ian

Nice to meet you too, Ian.

Glad you liked the shots of Kolob canyon. That waterfall must have been over a thousand yards away - 600mm lens 1/60th of a second - slooow shutter speed for that focal length - but I wanted the water to flow. Most of my shots were just blurred, but this one was fair. I tried slower shuter speeds, but that was just not going to happen - I could see the blur in the LCD on the 20D!!

I did not really see that the bike was damaged as I went by the first time. I actually turned back to shoot the signage, and that is when I saw the scrapes on the side of the bike. The bike was on its center stand. Ony after talking to the rider did I realize the damge was fresh.

I have slid down the highway myself, so I realize that the rider is not the person to judge their health status post-collision. But he had fallen about an hour prior to our arrival, picked the bike up and moved it off the highway, and set it on the the center stand and hiked to the top of the hill. He was pleasant and coherent, and his garments were bascially intact except on the lower sleeves and knees. He said he was only going about 30mph when he hit the gravel on the center stripe and the rear wheel gave way and slid out beneath him.

I made sure he had plenty of water and a workable cell-phone. And his two riding buddies had been behind him when he went down so they were on their way to meet the truck he had coming for him. All points seemed to be in order so I drove on; otherwise I would have stayed or strongly encouraged him to let me take him to a hospital for evaluation.
__________________

pathfinder

andy wrote:

excellent series. it was great to meet you and kathy in person, pf thanks for sharing your trip - all i can say is "more" !!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Andy - I was nice to meet you and have an opportunity to meet many of the dgrinners here in person.

I have a few more frames to process and uplink later. I think nightingale has quite a few more to display also. She had a ball meeting you all. She is looking forward to next year. How great is that!!??

Skippy

Beautifully Done Pathfinder
What a wonderful trip, and your images are just gorgeous, there sure is plenty to see in USA ....... I love going back there, each time I get to go places I haven't been before and revisit some places I have too

I hope to be able to get to next years trip, but that depends on when they decide to go, because we have to put in for leave a long ways in advance.

The colors in your shots are just amazing, may I ask do you shoot in Raw? or in Jpeg? me I can't figure Raw out......... I know how to put the camera into Raw, but I don't know how you deal with it on the computer.

I love the deep red colorization of the the Rocks, and Hill sides, the more I look at the images you folks are posting from your Adventures, the more I wanna go there next time

Thank you for posting your beautiful shots, they really are quite stunning.
Skippy (Australia)

pathfinder

Skippy wrote:

What a wonderful trip, and your images are just gorgeous, there sure is plenty to see in USA ....... I love going back there, each time I get to go places I haven't been before and revisit some places I have too

I hope to be able to get to next years trip, but that depends on when they decide to go, because we have to put in for leave a long ways in advance.

I have wanted to visit Australia since I was a kid. Maybe I'll get there yet. You Ozzies's seem to come and go without too much too do about it.

The colors in your shots are just amazing, may I ask do you shoot in Raw? or in Jpeg? me I can't figure Raw out......... I know how to put the camera into Raw, but I don't know how you deal with it on the computer.

Yes, most of my shots are captured in RAW - I find this saves my butt a lot. If I were better at exposure I might not need it so much, but even the evaluative meter on the Canon 1series cameras gets fooled from time to time. Avoiding over exposure is the real thing, and RAW can help you out of the fire when one channel ( red or green or blue ) gets overcooked. IF all three channels are gone, then you're fried.

Go to Amazon and find "Camera RAW with Adobe Photoshop CS" by Bruce Fraser. I found it to be a great help in using RAW. Part fo the 'Real World' series of books. Easy to read and wriiten for working photographers. A great resource.

I love the deep red colorization of the the Rocks, and Hill sides, the more I look at the images you folks are posting from your Adventures, the more I wanna go there next time

Thank you for posting your beautiful shots, they really are quite stunning.
Skippy (Australia)

Thanks so much Skippy. I met my first real live Australian last week, and he could not be a finer fella. Good dye!

GREAPER

Did you motice the couple hugging in the Hotel window when you shot it? Thats one of my favorites.

pathfinder

GREAPER wrote:

Did you motice the couple hugging in the Hotel window when you shot it? Thats one of my favorites.

That IS a statue of course, and yes I saw it, and the big bird in the window also :

ehughes

I really like this shot as well, but now I can't get that song out of my head :bash

pathfinder wrote:

That IS a statue of course, and yes I saw it, and the big bird in the window also :

iluvhim

You take some very brilliant pictures...I absolutely fell in love with the Fern Springs one!!!! OMG...totally breath taking!

pathfinder

iluvhim wrote:

You take some very brilliant pictures...I absolutely fell in love with the Fern Springs one!!!! OMG...totally breath taking!

I have to give Ed Hughes credit for that one :

Long exposures of flowing water can be pretty cool Thanks for your kind words.

Phil U.

Wow, you a lot of really great pics here. Nice that you shared the story of your trip with us. I enjoyed it all.

MuskyDude

Took my time and really enjoyed reading about your trip, and looking at your photos PF. You sure got allot of wallhangers, were you planning on redecorating? You took some trully excellent shots and have to go with that, equally amazing memories. Thanks for sharing this trip with us!!!


AJ

gubbs

Great shots Jim, looks like we stopped in some of the same pull offs , you'll see what I mean when I get through my pics!

gus

Beautiful.... Love your colours !

pathfinder

gubbs wrote:

Great shots Jim, looks like we stopped in some of the same pull offs , you'll see what I mean when I get through my pics!

You must mean in Utah, I'll bet. They just make it so easy there - pull offs every few miles. I'll give yours a gander. Been watching your NYC shots and enjoying them a lot.:):

Steve Cavigliano

Super shots PF


Geeze, Yosemite was only a small part of your US Tour. The other shots are really fine and those Zion shots got me ready to go again (as if I needed more motivation....lol).

I really enjoyed meeting your and your lovely wife She spent some time with us Sun morning and she was just a joy to talk to. Hopefully, you'll be posting some of her shots too :

I'll be looking for your bird pics over in N&W.


Steve

SusanB

Wow, that was a fun vacation to view Thanks for sharing your experiences and view of the world through your camera


Susan

Khaos

This is an awesome shot!

I really liked the dome reflection one also, but the lighting, view, colors, everything, makes this pic really work for me.

pathfinder wrote:

pathfinder

Khaos wrote:

This is an awesome shot!

I really liked the dome reflection one also, but the lighting, view, colors, everything, makes this pic really work for me.

Khaos - I am so glad you liked this image - I liked the turquoise color in the rust along the lower edge, and the details in the darkened interior, and the fact that the highlights in the windows were not completely blown out in the harsh sunlight of Death Valley. It is always kind of fun to have someone else see and appreciate what I thought I saw when I shot this image. Thanks again.

Here a couple more images from along the roadside in Utah late in the afternoon as a storm passed through.

mereimage

He's got more -he's holding out on you
Folks I've seen this and a few others printed ~13x19 on enhanced mat paper and they look terrific-Dgrin does not do them justice. He's not posted his best shots yet///.Mereimage