Dewey Point
While there are tons of information on photographing Yosemite, there is not much on Dewey Point, the popular snowshoeing destination. I'd like to share my experiences here.
We did an overnight snowshoe back country camping at Dewey Point on Dec 31, 2012. Dewey Point offers some great views at both sunset and sunrise time, where you can see both El Capitan and Half Dome. Although it is not as dominating as what you see in Yosemite valley, the vantage point is unique. El Capitan, the biggest exposed granite monolith in the world, is right in front of you. More excitingly, moments before the last lights of 2012 disappeared on the horizon, we were lucky enough to witness for the first time in our life some optical phenomenon called anticrepuscular rays from the mountain range behind Half Dome.
From Dewey Point, a short 0.6 mile one-way hike will bring you to Crocker Point, which also offers some stunning views from a different angle.
When we were there the lowest temperature was 14° F at night. It varied from 7° F to 15° F for the week.
Eagle Peak
On Jan 18, 2014, we did a 2-day backpacking trip. On the first day hiked from valley floor to Upper Yosemite Falls. Stayed there overnight. On next day we hiked to Eagle Peak, a prominent summit on the north side of Yosemite Valley. The peak offers unique vantage point of the valley. Sunset was amazing. Sunrise, however, same as many other places in the valley, was not impressive. Unless you want to melt snow, Yosemite Creek is the only place you can pump water along this trail.
Upper Cathedral Lake
On Oct 4, 2014, we finally got a chance to camp at Upper Cathedral Lake, a famous landmark in Yosemite. Backcountry permit is required for overnight stay there. Keep in mind that the permit is not easy to get. We had to reserve 5 months ago in order to get it! The hike is pretty easy 3.5 miles one way. But getting to the popular spot on the nearby hill to take the iconic photo above the lake needs a bit effort because there is no clearly marked trail on the hill.
My GPS tracks, Upper Cathedral Lake.gpx, can be downloaded from GPS Tracks Collection.