Can you see Yosemite Valley from the Central Valley?

Love Your Life!

Nature is surprising in so many ways!

Early in January we topped Altamont Pass, and were shocked to look 150 miles across the California Central Valley and see the blue line of the Sierra Nevada. It was a rare day for optics. Cold with a light wind clearing the Valley haze. A day made to see into the distance.

Crossing the Valley, we drove parallel to the mountains, through orchards and cattle ranches at the edge of the Foothills, and had another surprise. From the valley floor we could see the High Country in crystal detail. The peaks of the Sierra Nevada gleamed and glimmered with ice and snow, seeming to float above us like a vision. 

This is not our usual view from the car window

At home I did a little internet sleuthing and discovered I had not been dreaming.  In fact, there’s a spot on the valley floor just outside of Turlock where, when atmospheric conditions are right, you can see Half Dome in Yosemite Valley! 

The world amazes me. It’s easy to understand how people become mystics, how atmospheric conditions favor the visionary. 

As I write this, the weather has changed yet again, with a storm coming in after two days of weirdly warm temperatures. Both days I painted outdoors in 70 degrees! 

We can’t look as far into the future as we can across the Valley on a cold winter day. But we can keep track of our present and our past with a Nature Calendar wheel (aka a Phenology Wheel) and a Nature Journal. Join my community and I’ll send you a monthly Nature Calendar Wheel that you can print out for your journal.