Kuna Crest is a ridge along side Lyell Canyon where the John Muir Trail heads up from Tuolumne Meadows to Lyell Glacier and then on to Donahue Pass.

Looking down on the lower meadow below Lyell Glacier from the upper meadow. The glacier is behind us.

Looking down on the lower meadow below Lyell Glacier from the upper meadow.

This is the wilderness experience – alone in the majestic, reliant on one’s self and one’s companions.

The view from the meadow just below Lyell Glacier (behind us) looking down Lyell Canyon from whence we had come.

On our first backpacking trip into Yosemite, we came across this natural line of demarcation – more of a spiritual boundary, probably born of a simultaneous shift in both geography and botany. No matter the cause, as we approached this gentle barrier we felt as if we were crossing over into a new realm – an untamed land more apart from civilization than simply distant from it. I paused to take this photograph in a meager attempt to capture the mood.

Having reached the higher of the two alpine meadows below Lyell Canyon, we looked back toward the way we had come up through Lyell Canyon out of Tuolumne Meadows.