Looking In

The Top Of Texas:The Guadalupe Mountains

El Capitan, sunrise, Guadalupe Mountains National Park

In keeping with the National Park theme established in my previous post, I thought I’d talk about the origin of the featured photo on my blog’s home page (above is another shot from a little bit later). That’s El Capitan, in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, here in Texas. Don’t confuse it with that other El Capitan in that other park… 🙂

Camper, Pine Springs Campground, Guadalupe Mountains National Park

The Guadalupe Mountains National Park is a good 500 miles from home and the nearest hotels to the park are up in New Mexico, so we drove out to El Paso and rented a camper trailer and camped in the park. The trails we hiked all began at the Pine Springs campground.

Eric and Leigh atop Guadalupe Peak, Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Naturally, the first hike we did was to the Top of Texas – Guadalupe Peak at 8751 feet (plus a six-foot aluminum pyramid at the top)! From that trail we got a top view of El Capitan, but that’s not a very exciting angle. The hike itself is wonderfully challenging. You gain about 3000 feet in altitude from the campground, but a lot of those feet you climb more than once! And, of course, there’s no water anywhere, so we carried (and drank) a lot. The view from the top is very cool, even under the noonday sun.

El Capitan with Agave, Guadalupe Mountains National Park

The next day we went to get a closer look at El Capitan. The El Capitan trail is less challenging hiking, but it has almost no shade. The water situation was no better and the constant sun was rather draining. I had hoped that this trail would give me a good angle on El Cap (we’re good friends by now) but most of the trail is too close to get a nice photo. When we branched off onto the Salt Basin Overlook trail, we got some better angles, but by then the sun was pretty high and the light was not optimal. However, as we were hiking with El Cap on our right, I was looking left.
There was a lower peak there that looked like it would have a great view of the cliff.

There didn’t appear to be a trail going up that hill. I couldn’t tell what was at the top. I wasn’t even positive which one it was when we were looking at a map. Later on we went to the Visitor Center to talk to the Park Rangers. We figured out which one it was on the map (at one point I walked outside with one of the volunteers and pointed to the peak I wanted – the one on the left in this picture).

El Capitan and friend , Guadalupe Mountains National Park

I asked the rangers how they felt about going off the trail. They said basically “just try not to create a new one.” Looking at the map, we decided the best approach: not from the campground by the trail, but from a rest stop on the highway about a mile down from the park entrance!

So I said to my wife, “to get the beautiful morning light that I want, we need to be up on top…before sunrise…” I know she loves me because she said, “let’s do this thing!” That may not be an exact quote. 🙂

Unnamed hill, Guadalupe Mountains National Park

We went down and scouted out the spot. There’s private land next to the rest stop, with a permanent ladder installed over the barbed-wire fence, but we decided to skirt that and go about 75 yards up to the corner of the fence, then along it on park land. Then you reach a (in July, anyway) dry stream bed. We followed the stream bed to the base of the hill and looked up. “How long do you think it would take to get up that?” “Oh, I dunno, maybe an hour? ” “So, let’s see, sunrise is a little before six…”

We decided that getting up around 4 would get us to the top in time. We were right. In fact, we could have slept a while longer! We got up appallingly early the next morning, drove down to the rest stop, and got off the trail. With flashlights in hand (and on my head) we tried to avoid tripping over cacti, rocks, and coyotes. Mostly successfully. And we made the summit almost an hour before sunrise! This gave me plenty of time to get set up and get some starry shots!

El Capitan, pre-dawn, Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Just after dawn, the light on the cliff face was a gorgeous rosy glow. And that’s about when I got the shot on the home page.

And then I turned around and looked the other direction:

Which is why, no matter how much beauty is in front of you, it’s always a good idea to turn around!

Climbing Half Dome: Yosemite 2015

I was prospecting through the archives today when I ran across photos from a trip we took a few years back – I knew there were gems in there! In late summer 2015, my wife Leigh and I decided we wanted to make a quick trip to Yosemite shortly after school started, hoping there would be less of a crowd. The primary goal: Half Dome. (If you don’t know Half Dome, check it out here, I’ll wait). So we entered, and won, the permit lottery (tip: weekdays are a lot easier!).

This was a last-minute trip, so there was no chance of staying in the park. We got a hotel as near the park entrance as we could. Not the best situation if you’re planning an all-day hike, but what can you do? We were about 20 miles from the park gate, which is yet another hour from Yosemite Valley. Half Dome, from the trailhead in Yosemite Valley, is a 10 to 12 hour hike (14-16 miles round-trip, 4800 feet of elevation). So we were on the road at about 4AM to get on the trail around sunrise.

It’s a beautiful hike. The trail was clear and not too steep, but some of the “steps” are pretty high. It was mostly gravelly and I slipped once or twice on the way down (hey, I was tired!). While late September is not the best time to see waterfalls, or much water of any kind, the views are still spectacular. As you can see from this picture of Vernal Fall, water flow was less than overwhelming – so don’t forget to carry plenty of your own. I hear it’s much wetter in the springtime and we intend to investigate!

After three or four hours on the trail, you reach a sign that says you need to have a permit to keep going, so I checked my pocket to make sure I still had it. I did, so we kept going.

And then you come to this:

Cable Ascent, Half Dome, Yosemite National Park

This was what we had been training for! Running across this picture in the archives is what prompted this whole post. I was trying to capture the sheer verticality of the cable ascent. From farther away it almost looked like people just going up a hill. It’s not quite straight up, but it’s not all that far off. We were encouraged by the National Park Service pointing out that “relatively few” people had fallen off the cables and died! 400 feet of almost sheer rock is quite a climb, and I needed a breather once we finally got to the top.

But the view is spectacular…

Leigh and Eric atop Half Dome, Yosemite National Park

What’s going on here?

Greeting and felicitations!

My name is Eric Scott Sweeney and I’m the ESS in ESS Images. I’m coming to you through this blog because I have been asked to share the stories behind some of my images. Before I do that, I thought I might share some of the stories behind me!

My wife and I love to travel. From our National Parks to the Camino de Santiago to Machu Picchu and more, new sights and new people, we’ve been going almost since the day we met. And my camera has traveled with us the whole way.

A few years ago I was persuaded to share the best of my work with a wider audience. I created my website and began printing some of my photos on different media. In a couple of months, I will be participating in my first art show (Stay tuned for a discount code for admission!).

And, a few minutes ago, I started this blog.

Here I’ll be talking about trips we’ve taken, trips we’re going to take, and the background of some of the photographs you’ll find on my website. I will be sharing photographs, old and new, and I hope to give some insight into my thought processes and my photographic processes. The comments section will be open if anyone has any questions!