On the John Muir Trail in the Ansel Adams Wilderness

In the Ansel Adams Wilderness

Along the John Muir Trail

The timing of our first backpacking expedition on this particular section of the John Muir Trail couldn’t have been better in terms of the weather, the clouds, the water, and the green growth as Spring finally arrived in the high country.

This is taken on the back side of Cathedral Peak on the way down into Tuolumne Meadows. I particularly like the split foreground/background attention areas with the stunted pine growing from the rock near us, and the famous jagged double teeth of Cathedral Peak in the distance.

This is one of my all-time favorite photographs taken in one of my all-time favorite places. We were coming down from the plateau at the summit of Donahue Pass, out of Yosemite and into the glacial moraine at the beginning of the Ansel Adams Wilderness when this vista presented itself: just right with a cloud shadow right over the Minarets, silhouetting them in front of the roiling sky.

The Minarets are those distant sharp peaks to the right of center in the background that are named for the architectural minarets they resemble.

Looking like an astronaut exploring a distant planet, Teresa negotiates the John Muir Trail down from Donahue pass and the border of Yosemite into the glacial moraine of the Ansel Adams Wilderness.

Banner Peak is the pointy one in the background. It is a constant landmark as one makes their way from Donahue Pass through Island Pass and on to Thousand Island Lake.