Whenever I’m traveling, I have this sense of inspiration, like somehow, just out of my reach, I have the pieces in my head to write the next Great American Travel Epic. Like Travels With Charley (Steinbeck), sans one standard poodle. And sometimes, I get one or two paragraphs in before I get distracted by a passing car, or a flash of light, or a squirrel. I’m an artist, and artists are flighty like that. Fortunately, I can keep it together for 8 hours at a time, so people pay me money, and I’m not a starving artist.

In the latter half of February, I decided to take a trip to Yosemite. It’s America’s busiest National Park, and due to the crowds traveling to the eastern half of Yosemite Valley, I thought this might be a good time to travel to the western half. During the latter half of February, there is a brief phenomenon that sometimes occurs called the ‘Firefall’, when the sun shines through Horsetail Fall for a brief, 5-15 minute bit of glow (Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism Bureau Staff). It’s a bit of a social media phenomenon, so metric tons of people travel to see it.

They travel, they congest the park, they cause damage to rivers and meadows, and they idle for hours, creating a smog bank in Yosemite Valley.

I am 100% against overtourism.

This seemed like a decent chance to hit up Tunnel View and Valley View, however; two epic viewpoints where you can see Yosemite Valley and take the same photos that Ansel Adams did. If everyone is going to be elsewhere, this is a perfect opportunity. And if I was going to travel in Ansel Adam’s footsteps, I was damn sure going to bring a large format camera.

I packed my bags, packed my camera, did a ridiculous amount of research, and headed down the road. For a more extensive look, check out this video;

The first night I arrived, I didn’t take the right turn to get to Tunnel View at sunset, nor did I take the right turn to get to Valley View. I ended up in the aforementioned line of cars for three hours. I don’t recommend it; you don’t get to see anything and you get stuck in traffic in an otherwise idyllic environment. Saying it louder for those in the back; AVOID THE FIREFALL TRAFFIC.

If you’re heading to Yosemite in the latter half of February and you don’t wish to torture yourself or the environment this way, head in from Fresno; you’ll see Tunnel View. It’s beautiful.

Tunnel View at Sunrise, Yosemite National Park. Shot on Ektar 100 with a Toyo 45a. Photo by Benjamin Wilson.

Even more of an experience, however, is going to Valley View. It has a small, intimate parking lot; maybe 8-10 cars worth, and is nearly abandoned. You can have a great experience and see some beautiful things; sunrise is particularly worth it. It does create a hard contrast scene which can be difficult to manage. I recommend using a hard-edged graduated neutral density filter; that way, you can cut down the overexposure in the upper half of the scene as the crepuscular rays cut across.

Valley View at Sunrise, Yosemite National Park. Shot on Ektar 100 with a Toyo 45a. Photo by Benjamin Wilson.

It might be worth it to bring a smaller camera; a medium format like a Hasselblad or a 35mm would give you a lot of opportunity to experiment. An inexpensive way to go, while still having phenomenal optical quality, would be to get an old, well-maintained mechanical Minolta. Minolta made many of the optics for Leica; a great way to get the same image quality as a $5,000 lens while paying $100-$200. The Minolta 50mm f1.4 prime lens is the perfect focal length to capture a tighter composition of Tunnel View, with a great deal of sharpness and image quality. Or, you could opt for the 28-80mm f3.5 zoom lens; even sharper when stopped down, and can be found for $60 or so. As Fujifilm is now selling Provia and Velvia 50 again, and Kodak is making E100, you could even opt to shoot slide film – a phenomenal, colorful, super-saturated way to capture one of the best views in America.

On the way home, I wanted to get to San Francisco to shoot the Golden Gate Bridge, but the interstate was flooded out. Climate change has its say; something to keep in mind when making travel plans.

Works Cited

Steinbeck, John. Travels with Charley: In search of America. New York: The Viking Press, 1962.

Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism Bureau Staff. Yosemite Firefall 2026 Guide. 21 January 2026. March 2026. <https://www.yosemite.com/a-guide-to-yosemites-natural-firefall-horsetail-fall/>.