Yosemite Alpenglow
Yosemite National Park, California.
The traditional Tunnel View capture of Yosemite Valley rarely disappoints even if you have to fight for some elbow room. Unfortunately, on this occasion El Capitan was not lit up by sunset light due to cloud cover.
The amazing thing depicted in the photo is the large number of brown pine trees. The long-lasting drought in California has stressed the pine trees to the point that they're no longer producing much sap. This means that the trees' natural defense against the bark beetles — the sap which drips out and envelops them after they've eaten some bark — isn't as plentiful. The beetles are succeeding in killing more trees, and as a result they're also reproducing in greater numbers and spreading across forests. Hopefully, the recent rains and snowfall will remedy the problem somewhat.
Yosemite Alpenglow
Yosemite National Park, California.
The traditional Tunnel View capture of Yosemite Valley rarely disappoints even if you have to fight for some elbow room. Unfortunately, on this occasion El Capitan was not lit up by sunset light due to cloud cover.
The amazing thing depicted in the photo is the large number of brown pine trees. The long-lasting drought in California has stressed the pine trees to the point that they're no longer producing much sap. This means that the trees' natural defense against the bark beetles — the sap which drips out and envelops them after they've eaten some bark — isn't as plentiful. The beetles are succeeding in killing more trees, and as a result they're also reproducing in greater numbers and spreading across forests. Hopefully, the recent rains and snowfall will remedy the problem somewhat.