Yosemite Horsetail Fire Fall

Horsetail fall is a seasonal waterfall in Yosemite with little flow in winter and onset of Spring. Also popularly known as Firefall owing to a natural phenomenon which occurs around mid of February when the sun is in a certain position and waterfall has a decent flow. The last rays of sun just before sunset illuminates the firefall giving it look of flowing molten lava.

The fall is on the east side of El Capitan, some people confuse it with the man made firefall in yosemite few decades back but that was different.

The fall is best seen and photographed from a small clearing close to the picnic area on the north road leading out of Yosemite Valley east of El Capitan. Leaving you with more detailed links on photographing this phenomenon.

http://www.michaelfrye.com/landscape-photography-blog/2012/01/26/the-best-time-to-photograph-horsetail-fall-revised/

This february the weather was perfect with hint of clouds and prefect shade of red from setting sun, but sigh there was no flow in the fall.

Adieu,
Divya

California Almond Fields

California is leading producer of almonds in US, and you can visually get a confirmation for that while travelling in and around famous California route 99.

We saw flowering Almond fields while returning from Yosemite to San Francisco through Merced. From a distance these flowers look like cherry blossom, but are quite different when held close. California almond fields are a great opportunity for infinity pics.

Adieu,

Divya

Pink sunset

As the summer approaches the color starts saturating with hues of pink, oranges and seldom violet at sunset. I love staring at these colors for hours.

This is a random shot taken last year  from my balcony. The sky could have not got any more pink I guess,

Adieu,
Divya

Alaska Byron Glacier Trail

After spending the day on a cruise at Prince William Sound we had enough light and time to finish the Byron Glacier trail, thanks to the sun which was still on our head at 8 PM. It felt weird to have your sunglasses on at 8-9 PM to avoid the strong sun glare.

Around 49 miles south of Anchorage turn onto Portage Valley Road and travel 6 miles to Boggs Visitor Center. Its very near to Portage Glacier boat dock.

The visitor center had closed by evening, so we pretty much had to rely on the road signs, since the internet too had gave up on us in Alaska. Bryon glacier is probably one of the easiest and comfortable trails to reach and experience a glacier(Also Matanuska Glacier).

The trail is flat and meanders through a fine stream gushing from the glacier. The trail just changes from shrubs to an open snow area. A little walk into the tails leads to a pile of rock debris. You have to carefully walk over the rocks to get nearer to the glacier.

Receding glacier, stone debris, water streams from the glacier make the perfect scenery.

I would definitely advise to be very cautious while walking on melting ice and also from falling rocks. While we were there, we saw a rock almost half the size of bus break from the mountain and roll half way down before getting stuck in a pile of snow.

Its a great moment to watch from a distance, but very scary if you are up on that snow and mountain.

Byron Glacier is a very pleasant and easy trail, not to be missed when in this area.

* Do coat yourself with mosquito repellent
* Plan out the Portage Glacier, we missed that.

And thats how we ended out first day in Alaska, high on ice, colors and the expectation just rose from the rest of our Alaska trip.

Adieu
Divya