Southside Drive by Merced River, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, CA, 10/19/2009
This was to be a day of changeable weather in Yosemite Valley. Here is a view of Upper Yosemite Fall from the forest by Southside Drive about a half hour after sunrise. The sun was gleaming and the clouds and fog were clearing. By late morning the sky would completely cloud over again and produce heavy rain that threatened to go on for days. By mid-afternoon the rain would stop, the sun would reemerge, and the clouds and fog would retreat once more! Although challenging to predict and work with, "bad" weather produces some of the best photographic opportunities. I'm especially fond of the juxtaposition of the ephemeral and vanishing fog and clouds with the ageless and enduring granite monoliths that surround Yosemite Valley. The total height of Yosemite Falls is 2,425 feet, and the height of the longest drop (the upper fall that is seen here) is 1,430 feet. Yosemite Falls is the tallest waterfall in North America and the sixth tallest waterfall in the world.
