The Range of Light at the snowy Clark Range View

Birds were singing cheerfully up at 4:00am...a day off ....so...off to Washburn Point and Glacier Point...to take sunrise photos...a family sharing a joyous sunrise together...brewing some coffee on a small camp-stove......a veteran...still carrying equipment...but of a different sort...photography gear....The lightness in his heart and step as our paths crossed on the way to Glacier Point.  He wanted to share his happiness.....just like a young child filled with the wonders of a Christmas morning.  He smiled as he told me, "I've been waiting to visit Yosemite for a lifetime, I've been reading all of the books.....Ansel Adams and John Muir."

I responded, "Welcome to Yosemite and remember as you photograph...the words of Ansel, "be one with Beauty." Yes!!!!! I never felt so much alive......I enjoyed photographing the joy-filled veteran as he photographed the wonders of a sunrise at Glacier Point. God did Bless America with Yosemite National Park.  In one photo..... as he was checking the light....as a good photographer would....he looked as if he were filled with Love....saluting the majestic Beauty...and the Sun.

 Talked to climbers...we remembered dean and graham and their love of life and mountains....then off to pothole meadow buttercups shooting stars....frogs croaking, a coyote yipping, birds sweetly singing, the most beautiful color-filled clouds dancing in the sky.

Beauty, Light, Snow.......fresh from Saturday evening's storm.....driving home I had to stop at...... marker G3....Clark Range View...on the Glacier Point Road

The Clark Range View is named for Galen Clark, the first guardian of the Yosemite Grant of 1864.  The Yosemite Grant's 150th anniversary was just celebrated last year 2014.  Mt. Clark is the highest peak at 11,522 feet.....the peak in the center of the photo.  It has an avalanche track on its face....a barren area extending to the forest below.....as the avalanche wiped out those trees.

Mount Starr King is the most prominent domed peak named for the Unitarian pastor whose writings in 1860 called attention......to the wonders of Yosemite. The other peaks to the right of Mt. Clark are Gray Peak, Red Peak, and Merced Peak.  The Yosemite, by John Muir

"Galen Clark was the best mountaineer I ever met, and  one of the kindest and most amiable of all my mountain friends.  .....met him on my first trip to Yosemite. .....hiking in deep snow we reached Clark's hospitable cabin in Wawona.......later, after making my home in the Yosemite Valley, I became well acquainted with Mr. Clark, while he was guardian.  He was elected again and again to this important office by different Boards of Commissioners on account of his efficiency and his real love of the Valley.

Although nearly all my mountaineering has been done without companions, I had the pleasure of having Galen with me on three excursions.......one trip...(hiking from Hetch Hetchy to Tuolumne Meadows).... I had convincing proof of Galen's daring and skill as a mountaineer.......he made a second excursion with me to the McClure and Lyell glaciers, and he said, "I think I have traveled all the sorts of trails and canyons, through all kinds of brush and snow, but this gets me."

His kindness to all Yosemite visitors and mountaineers was marvelously constant and uniform. ....Mr. Clark was truly and literally a gentleman....he liked "nothing in the world better than climbing to the top of a high ridge or mountain and looking off."  He preferred the mountain ridges and domes in the Yosemite regions on account of the wealth and beauty of the forests. .....On these trips he was always alone and could indulge in tranquil enjoyment of Nature to his heart's content.

About 20 years before his death he made choice of a plot in the Yosemite cemetery on the north side of the Valley, not far from the Yosemite Fall, and selecting a dozen or so of seedling sequoias in the Mariposa grove he brought them to the Valley and planted them around the spot he had chosen for his last rest.  ....by careful watering he finally nursed most of the seedling into good, thrifty trees, and doubtless they will long shade the grave of their blessed lover and friend."

So on my excursion to the Clark Range View....I paused for a moment to honor two of my Yosemite heroes....who were also friends, sharing mountain excursions together.... and thought....this moment......this place...after all I had seen this gloriously cloud filled morning....this grand scenery....the Clark Range View....in the words of Galen Clark....."but this gets me."

Looking at the scene before me......oh, yes I've been here so many times before,  especially cross country skiing to this spot....almost daily......this breathtaking and rewarding view after skiing 5.5 miles...snow snow snow on the mountain range.....the clark range view....the fresh snow reminded me of all those wonderful memories of skiing to this popular destination spot...lunch...and return....i was thankful.

At this moment.....the scene looked like a soft watercolor painting.....shooting into sun.....i can't see the image on the ipod screen... i say a prayer...and later... i notice an added gift.......The photo shows the beautiful pink colored clouds above the fresh white covered mountains of the Clark Range.  The ipod was able to capture the purple tones of the trees....just as Muir saw them...

The Yosemite, by John Muir

"The mighty Sierra, miles in height, and so gloriously colored and so radiant, it seemed not clothed with light, but wholly composed of it, like the wall of some celestial city.  Along the top and extending a good way down, was a rich pearl-gray belt of snow; below it a belt of blue and dark purple, marking the extension of the forests; and stretching along the base of the range broad belt of rose-purple; all these colors, from the blue sky to the yellow valley smoothly blending as they do in a rainbow, making a wall of light ineffable fine.  Then it seemed to me that Sierra should be called, not the Nevada or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light.  And after ten years of wandering and wondering in the heart of it, rejoicing in its glorious floods of light, the white beams of the morning streaming through the passed, the noonday radiance on the crystal rocks, the flush of the alpenglow, and the irised spray of countless waterfalls, it still seems above all others the Range of Light."

 I was hoping the light would be perfect when my new friend, veteran and photographer, drove by this spot ... Hoping he would take perfect pictures......perfect pictures....to provide memorable memories for this perfect veteran ...who said it was an honor to serve for his country....on this perfect memorial day weekend in perfect Yosemite.  This new hero of mine was inspired by his heroes.......Ansel Adams and John Muir.....maybe he would now add Galen Clark to his list of heroes.

On this Memorial Day...we at Scenic Wonders are grateful to all those who served our country and who now rest in peace.  We hope you and your family will enjoy the grand scenery of the Clark Range View.  By staying at one of the Scenic Wonders' cabins, you will be less than a half hour drive to one of Yosemite's finest views......and you'll be able to say with Galen Clark......"but this gets me."