Categories: Sentinel DomesunsetwildflowersYosemite National ParkYosemite Valley

Dogwood Season in Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Dogwood, originally uploaded by Jeff Sullivan (Truckee today).

The dogwood are in full boom in Yosemite Valley, with no new buds apparent. The trees have most of their leaves showing, which can obscure the flowers somewhat (for photography it’s best to catch them a little on the early side).

Up at higher elevations the dogwoods are just starting to bloom, with a few early ones showing up in the 5000 to 6000 foot elevations as you leave the Valley South through the Wawona Tunnel and on both sides of Crane Flat. I’d give those areas another week or so.

The redbud trees are also blooming. For this shot I chose somewhat of a reverse composition, where the framing element is the subject, and what normally would be a strong subject (Lower Yosemite Falls) is a background element to show context.

Yosemite National Park’s Glacier Point road is open, so I headed up to Sentinel Dome for sunset. Tioga Pass is targeted to open Friday, May 22.

Not the best of my photos, but I thought it was a cool thing to see, so I’m sharing it anyway.
I counted at least 9 climbing parties camping out, although their lights were not all visible at once.
I understand that it generally takes at least 2 to 4 days to climb El Capitan. The camps do seem pretty well divided into three levels that a four day, three night climb might require.

Jeff Sullivan

Jeff Sullivan leads landscape photography workshops in national parks and public lands throughout California and the American West.

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John W. Wall says:

May 19, 2009 at 8:10 pm

Funny, but your "not my best" photo is the one I like best -- for its unusualness. That's wild to think of spending the night, cooking dinner, etc., on that cliff face. I guess we're seeing two different routes, right? The "easy" route on the right has more climbers?