Midwinter At Swinging Bridge - a photo on Flickriver

I've been shooting Yosemite as a landscape photographer for almost 10 years now and I've been fortunate to be in the park for a number of what I consider to be special circumstances. Of all of those, the events that took place over the last 36 hours or so definitely rank way the heck up there.

Last Monday, I took off after work a bit later than I had hoped, driving in showery weather up through the grapevine past Bakersfield and on past Fresno. I was hoping to not have to put on chains until I reached the valley floor, but when I started seeing snow well below Oakhurst, I knew that it would be a long night. Highway 41 was closed due to heavy snow as I reached Oakhurst so I headed for highway 140 through Mariposa. The snow was already several inches thick in several spots along the way, but I managed to make it to Midpines before the snow really began coming down hard and I pulled over and put the Z cables on. As I left Midpines I was the ONLY car driving up. Of course, it was already after 11 PM on a weeknight during a big storm so that may have had something to do with it. When I reached the valley floor, the snow was already at least 8 inches deep and it showed no signs up letting up.

On Tuesday morning, I thought something was strange as the snow was at least a foot deep already but the plows hadn't been by anywhere that night. I made a quick trip around the loop expecting to head up to Tunnel View, but the road leading to Tunnel View was closed. I continued around and noticed that several trees and branches had come down due to the heavy snow. I finally settled in at the Valley View parking lot and found one other brave soul there. It looked like her van must have been there all night.

By 10 AM I was making another trip around the loop but now I knew something must be going on because NO ONE else seemed to be in the park. The only other vehicles I had seen belonged to the NPS. It was still coming down and when I walked into a field opposite Bridal Veil, the snow was already almost up to my knee caps. Finally, a ranger drove by and told me that everything was closed...not only 41 and 140, but all of the roads in the valley floor as well. All of the park guests at Ahwahnee and the Lodge were told not to dig out and drive around as conditions were not safe. An hour later, another ranger told me that they would begin escorting people out that afternoon if they wanted to leave.

I wanted to stay until after the storm broke, so I continued to drive around the loop, keeping a wary eye on tree branches and finally found a place to park near the chapel with no trees overhead. I shot for a while, wading waist deep into the snow into the Chapel meadow, but then the heaviest snow yet began to come down in earnest. I headed back to the car for a nap while I waited for the snow to let up. When I woke up, I noticed the light had changed. I peeked out the window and saw the sun beginning to poke through the clouds. I jumped out and started shooting. On my walk back down to Swinging Bridge, I was completely alone and it was glorious. If you have never been in Yosemite to witness a clearing winter storm, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
By the time I made it back to the car, it was after 4 pm and I had just enough time to try for a sunset shot at the valley view before starting on the 6.5 hour drive home.

Part of what made last Tuesday so incredible was just the complete sense of solitude in one of the nation's busiest parks. I must have shot at least a dozen locations and at almost all of them I was completely alone. I did meet a few other hardy photographers while I was out there, but it seemed most guests decided to wait out the storm while sipping hot cocoa and the rest of the world, for that brief expanse of time, was cut off. Just for a moment, I got to be John Muir and wade out into a Yosemite meadow and hear nothing but the sound of snowflakes as they swirled around me.

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Taken on: February 5, 2019

Tags:

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite

Swinging Bridge

Yosemite Falls

Reflection

Merced River

Roads Blocked

Snowed In

Heavy Snow

Snow « less

Sets appears in: • Yosemite

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