Brilliant yellow Big Leaf Maples, golden oaks and red dogwoods lined the trail along the recently reopened Mirror Lake Loop, which was closed in 2009 due to a rock fall. Before we hit the trail, we took a leisurely walk along the Merced River, capturing reflections of fall colors, along with a critter or two along the way.
Where: Yosemite National Park
Distance: 8 Miles
Elevation Range: 3,826 to 4,321
Date: November 7, 2012
Highlights: Amazing colors and reflections from the fall colors that make you go “Ooooooh” and “Aaaaaah” at so many turns in the trail. Seeing the power of the rock fall that closed the Mirror Lake Loop trail for 3 years and the hard work that the trail crew has done to reopen it is awesome.
Before we parked at Happy Isles, we stopped along the Merced River and took a few pictures of the fall color and mountain reflections in and along the water.
Here is our hiking gang for the day, Deb, Laura, Gail and Keith, with an incredible reflection of El Capitan in the Merced River.
A duck glides across the water.
We parked the car at Happy Isles, and then headed for Mirror Lake, walking along the water to capture some of the color and reflections.
Brilliant red dogwoods.
An Azalea, framed by two trees, still had some flowers on it.
Brilliant yellow oaks!
We had a traffic jam on the trail, had to wait for the deer to mosey off the trail so we could continue on.
We approached the Ahwiyah Point Rock Fall and got our first glimpse of the massive rocks that had closed the trail since 2009.
This tree stump was blow apart when the rock fall hit it. The power must have been tremendous.
The trail crew was still working hard on the trail when we came through.
