Part 1 pics come from my hike in Yosemite and my visit to Mono Lake.
A shot of Tuolumne Meadows in eastern Yosemite NP, where I started my hike.
Walking up one of the granite domes.
On top of one of the granite domes, looking back toward Tioga Pass. From here I wandered off into the wilderness in a northwesterly direction.
I came upon a lightning-killed tree that I thought was photogenic.
Eventually I hit the Tuolumne River, well above the canyon and the falls.
Here's where I rock-hopped across. I went off into the woods from here.
Random forest shots are boring, but I did manage to capture some of the wildlife. I eventually made it back to my car, tired and tanned.
Not far from Yosemite is Mono Lake, but the environments are very different.
All around and through the lake are these tufa towers, the result of deposition of minerals from underwater springs. Obviously, they are no longer underwater (but that's a different story). The black rime on the shore isn't some varnish or dark algal species, it's alkali flies, billions of them. The water is 2.5x more salty and 100x more alkaline than the ocean. These flies are uniquely evolved to take advantage of this.
More tufa.
Yet more tufa. They can form some pretty interesting shapes.
The lake is big. This is where I went in. The water is extremely buoyant and feels slippery, like a dilute oil.
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