Friday, November 8. The Ahwahnee, about a half hour after sunset. This and the next were taken with my phone (!) using the Night Sight option.

A reverse view, this from Sunday night, taken about 45 minutes after sunset.

Saturday, November 9. Each morning I was out before breakfast. Wonderfully quiet out here. A muted palette of colors in the early light.

The fireworks are off to the side. Lots of colorful dogwoods (and maples and oaks) in the area.

Indeed much of the area had an understory with almost all the leaves in autumn color. This is the path back to the Ahwahnee cabins.

A dogwood leaf close up. Colors on these varied a from pink to bright red to orange to yellow ... sometimes on different leaves, sometimes as here on a single leaf.

More colorful dogwood leaves.

Behind the main lawn is the Wedding Lawn, with this at a back corner. Maybe it's just a big seat, but I'd like to think this was once the altar for the weddings. Today, no. None of the on-line Ahwahnee wedding pictures feature this rustic stump, and it is rather messed up with carved graffiti.

Looking up from the Wedding Lawn. No water in Yosemite Falls.

Lots of riverside wandering and photographing this morning and at other times on the trip. Let's concentrate on one scenic spot, the Merced at the Sugar Pine Bridge. At the far left is the tree for which the bridge was named. This one's from Monday morning.

The same sugar pine, but here with the view across the river directly opposite. The bridge is to the left. Taken Sunday mid-day.

Populus trichocarpa (black cottonwood). Some of the yellows down here are these. Also Sunday mid-day.

Back to Friday pictures ... and back to the Ahwahnee for breakfast.

We are in the tower this year, on the fifth floor (of six). The window in the back is ours. It's a corner room. There's another window facing north.

After breakfast we did a driving excursion. The first major stop (after the Village Market for comestibles), was Valley View. In how many conditions have I taken this shot? Mighty low water today.

Then up to Glacier Point. This is at the base of the amphitheater, on the site of the old Glacier Point Hotel. In the distance, familiar terrain from my September hike.

Buried in the shadows on the last shot is Nevada Fall. It's running, barely. (This is a different shot, but the distance and huge contrasts make color at best a distraction.)

More of Glacier Point.

A shot down to the Ahwahnee. From up there the larger trees -- pines and incense cedars (green) plus black oaks (yellow) near the hotel dominate the view. But you can still spot those red dogwoods.

Up Tenaya Canyon.

You can see color down there ... and no sign of water in Mirror Lake.

Heading back down now. Tunnel View. Another shot I've taken how many times?

Bridalveil Falls has water.

Back at the hotel now. The theme of our afternoon walk was was change -- of climate, of pine mortality, of meadow restoration. The piles of removed brush and trees mark restoration of Ahwahnee Meadow. Out are several planted giant sequoias that were messing with the hydrology. The old, long-unused tennis courts finally came out too. That fine dogwood stays.