This is the view we encountered on our first expedition along the John Muir Trail up from Lyell Glacier to Donahue Pass at 11,000 feet. It was all a mystery that first time, and the clouds provided the best accent to the landscape of all our later visits.

Taken along the John Muir Trail on the climb to Donahue Pass

Another angle on Kuna Crest, Yosemite

Looking back at Lyell Canyon with Lyell Glacier behind us.

Here’s a wider shot of that upper meadow below Lyell Glacier that shows the primeval feeling of the craggy rocks and tree-less landscape above the timberline. You can really do a lot of communing with your inner spiritual self in a place like this, and with spectacular vistas in every direction, it is a nature photographer’s dream.

I like this shot because of the cloud shadows that shade part of the landscape. There is a frosty sheen to the darker areas that speaks to the chill in the air from the glacial runoff.

Every time I reach this point along this section of the John Muir Trail, I stand in awe. I lover the Sierra, and of this range, Yosemite (and the Ansel Adams Wilderness) the most. Aside from perhaps the Alps, I know of no other place on earth that consistently provides such stunning views around nearly every turn.

This particular picture was taken on my first trip to this part of Yosemite in 2004, while hiking a section of the JMT with Teresa and our dear departed friend, Bob. Alas, I only had one of the early generations of a digital camera with resolution ranging from 500K to 1 megapixels. But, here in my online studio, that is still quite sufficient to hang here in my virtual gallery.

The glacier is behind us as we look back over the route we took through Lyell Canyon along the Lyell fork of the Merced River on the John Muir Trail. (2004)