This is, as I recall, about halfway into Lyell Canyon, which runs a total of nine miles from Tolumne Meadows to Lyell Glacier.

At the end of Lyell Canyon, which stretches out into the wilderness from Tuolumne Meadows, the John Muir Trail winds into a more forested area on its way up toward Lyell Glacier and Donahue Pass beyond.

This is the lower of the two alpine meadows below Lyell Glacier. After our first trip here in 2004, we hiked this section of the John Muir Trail again in 2006 and then once more in 2012. I find it one of the most beautiful spots in Yosemite and hope to crawl my way back up there for some years to come.

This is the view over the edge of Vernal Falls where many have unintentionally taken a plunge to the rocks below.

This is the lower of two alpine meadows below Lyell Glacier along the John Muir Trail and is my favorite place to camp on the climb to Donahue Pass

Vernal Falls is the lower of two cascades along the Mist Trail in Yosemite. Most every year, one or more people ignore the warnings not to wade in the pool at the top and are swept over the edge to their deaths.

The Mist Trail is so named because of the micro-spray from Nevada Falls along the stone steps cut into the granite wall of the canyon is this section of Yosemite.

Captured this from our moving car as we tooled up highway 395 toward a backpacking trip in Yosemite with our friend Bob Miller.

This was taken during our first expedition backpacking in Yosemite in 2003. I was using an early generation digital camera that barely had 1 megapixel, but nonetheless, the stark high-contrast beauty of the monoliths surrounding the trail were perfectly rendered.