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Yosemite National Park is known the world over and really needs no introduction. Thousands of people fly over the park every day but few see it or recognize it if they are looking. Yosemite is quite spectacular from the air, as clearly shown below.
Yosemite valley and El Capitan peeking out from beneath the clouds.
Yosemite Valley, Half Dome at right.
Half Dome at upper right.
Close shot of Half Dome.
Stereogram of Half Dome and vicinity.
Click to enlarge; cross eyes to converge the two images to appear as three.
3-d effect will appear in the middle. Be patient - this gets easier with experience.
(1536px wide version here)
Upper El Capitan brightly illuminated in the late afternoon sunshine. Upper Yosemite Falls can be seen in shadow above and to the right of El Capitan (click to enlarge).
El Capitan stands out in the foreground. To its lower right, and clearly visible during one of the rare times when it's actually illuminated in direct sunshine is Bridal Veil Fall. Half Dome towers over the upper-right corner of the image; below and to its right, in shadow, can be seen Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls. Even Upper Yosemite Falls can be seen (barely visible in shadow) in this shot, up and to the left of El Capitan.
(Click to enlarge)
Wide shot of Yosemite; El Capitan in lower-left quadrant and Half Dome in upper right. The telltale vertical white line of Upper Yosemite Falls can be clearly seen to the upper right of El Capitan. Mono Lake appears in the upper-right corner of the image.
Close shot of El Capitan.
Optical distortion visible at the bottom of the image is caused by the aircraft window.
Yosemite in the summer heat.
Upper Yosemite Falls can just barely be discerned just left of the center of this image.
(click to enlarge)
El Capitan and a good portion of the valley are visible in this view.
Same shot, different day...
Shadows of the late afternoon obscure much of the valley.
Half Dome casts its late afternoon shadow over the trees beyond.
January 2009, El Capitan.
A closer crop of El Capitan.
January 2009, Half Dome.
And a closer crop of Half Dome.
Snow-capped El Capitan peeking out from beneath the clouds.
May 2009, stitched from 4 images. The falls are all in sunlight.
May 2009, more falls in sunlight.
More information about Yosemite National Park [wikipedia].
Mount St. Helens [US Forest Service] Erupted in1980 [Wikipedia], blasting more than a cubic kilometer skyward, obliterating in that moment what had been a pristine wilderness park, turning much of it into a barren moonscape.
Today, more than a quarter of a century later, areas of the park that have been under the stewardship of logging companies have been replanted with thick forests, albeit of far less diversity than would occur naturally. Some large areas of the park have not been artificially replanted. There, the post-eruption conditions have been largely left alone except for restoration of a few roads and installation of several view points and associated parking areas, allowing nature to take its course and heal itself at its own pace, and providing an opportunity to observe, document, and learn from this experience.
Today, much of the blast zone is still fairly barren. Spirit Lake remains full of the logs of trees that were blown down in the eruption, covering about 1/3 of the lake surface, floating back and forth at the whim of the winds. In and around the blast areas though, clear signs are everywhere of life reasserting itself. Within the last 5 years or so, small trees that had emerged between the fallen trunks of their predecessors have begun to grow taller. Birds and other wildlife are increasingly found in these areas. It's not hard to imagine in another 25-30 years, this area will look much as it did before the eruption.
Meanwhile, inside the crater, another kind of growth is going on. The mountain itself is healing. At a rate that has been described as the equivalent of a dump-truck full every few seconds, a dome of ash and lava grows. Most of the time a plume of smoke and steam is visible over the mountain; more noticeable during cooler weather when the steam condenses as it rises. Given enough time, even the mountain will eventually return to a conical shape, leaving little surface evidence of that cataclysmic event.
For an up-close and personal look at the mountain, check out this recent Gigapan.
September 9, 2008
July 22, 2008
Jan 1, 2008
Feb 1, 2005
Feb 26, 2008
Feb 26, 2008
Apr 4, 2006
Apr 4, 2006
May 18, 2003
May 25, 2006
May 29, 2007
May 29, 2007
May 29, 2007
Jun 7, 2007: Molokini of the North.
Molokini [Wikipedia]
Molokini Aerial [Maui Boat Rental]
Jun 7, 2007
Jun 7, 2007
Jun 20, 2006
Jun 30, 2005
Jul 3, 2007
Jul 25, 2007
Jul 29, 2005
Sep 8, 2005
Oct 5, 2004
Oct 5, 2004
Oct 5, 2004
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Oct 25, 2005
Nov 17, 2005
Nov 20, 2007
Nov 20, 2007
May 1, 2008
Feb 3, 2009
Right now (View from Johnston Ridge Visitor Center, courtesy USGS).
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