A few weeks ago, we spent a weekend in Yosemite. In the morning we enjoyed the Fall Colors in the Yosemite Valley I talked about in a previous post (link), later in the day, we headed up to Glacier Point to enjoy the sunset.

While the sun was setting, I noticed a patch of light on a rock column at the bottom of North Dome. Initially, a big patch of the forest and rock was illuminated, but eventually only the small top of the rock column was hit by the light.

Right at sunset, it is quite crowded on Glacier Point. But as soon as Half Dome is in the shade, most people head back to their cars. Obviously this time of the year, it is much warmer in the car than outside with the cold wind blowing around your face. But it’s only a few minutes after sunset that the real show begins. The clouds high up in the sky start glowing with ever changing colors.

Eventually, dusks turns into night and the stars come to life. Up on Glacier Point, barely any light pollution diminishes the beautiful star display.

While I used one camera to take pictures of the Milky Way, I had my second camera programmed to independently shoot a series of images. Later, I merged them together to show the movement of the stars as a startrail image. I specially like the different airplane light trails originating behind Half Dome. It is amazing how busy the sky is. About 11 airplanes flew over Half Dome in the span of 40 minutes I took this image.