Northside Drive, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, CA, 5/22/2010
At the end of an uneventful stay in Yosemite Valley, the weather finally became varied and photogenic on my last morning as I prepared to drive home. After several days of cloudless skies a storm system moved in, adding drama and interest to the landscape. Of course the views in Yosemite Valley are always wonderful, but I prefer to photograph them during special times and decisive moments like the one seen here! This is a view of approaching cumulus storm clouds towering over Cathedral Rocks and Cathedral Spires, which in turn tower about 2,700 feet above Yosemite Valley. The lighting took on a new quality as clouds cast shadows on the walls of granite. We're standing at the base of El Capitan (behind us) looking southwest across the meadow and seasonal pond opposite Cathedral Beach. Just left of center are Higher Cathedral Spire and Lower Cathedral Spire, the most impressive spires in all of Yosemite National Park. Higher Cathedral Rock is at center and Middle Cathedral Rock is the enormous monolith at right. The famous explorer and protector of Yosemite Galen Clark said that as viewed from the west they are called the Three Graces, but as seen from the east they have a different appearance and are called Cathedral Rocks. The two Cathedral Spires “appear like the towers of a gothic cathedral” and were named by Yosemite promoter James Mason Hutchings in September of 1862. These rock features were the scene of some of the first serious rock climbing done in the Sierra during the 1930s. All the main peaks in and around Yosemite Valley were climbed by the 1870s with the exception of the two Cathedral Spires. It would take over 50 years for equipment and technique improvements before these would also be climbed.
