Yosemite or Donner Lake Area (Page 5): Good luck Mark. It looks like you have a plan. Have a great time and get some great pictures. Check back with us and let us know how it went.

stumbo Loc: Prescott, AZ

Good luck Mark. It looks like you have a plan. Have a great time and get some great pictures. Check back with us and let us know how it went.

skingfong Loc: Sacramento

MarkintheHV wrote:

I just had a business trip drop in my lap that will take me to Sacramento, CA for a time frame of my choosing. Since I have this need to take photos, I am torn between planning a weekend in the Donner Lake Area or Yosemite. I love photographing waterfalls as well as the Milky Way.

Which area would be best?

Yosemite is breath taking every time I go. It's quite a drive from Sacramento.
Donner Lake and Lake Tahoe is about a 2 hour drive. It's beautiful out there too. Right now, it'll be harder to shoot the Milky Way as a moon gets fuller. I was just out there last week. I should have gone the week before.

If you can swing it, I would also take the drive out to San Francisco. It's about an hour and a half to 2 hour drive from Sacramento depending on the traffic. There's a lot of great scenery there too.

stumbo Loc: Prescott, AZ

I'm glad you ordered the book I recommended. It's put together very well and will save you a lot of time figuring out where and when to go to get the images you most want in the short time you are there.

Good luck and best wishes

Roger

topcat Loc: Alameda, CA

Yosemite in a heartbeat. You may only see the valley, but if you can put up with all the people, there is none better.

the hiker Loc: San Diego

Another great book that covers all the areas you are going to be in is PhotoSecrets San Francisco & Northern California.It covers everything you need to know about the whole area.cost about $17.00 new maybe $10.00 used best money you will spend as a guide for that part of the country. Also I think that there is a road open now or maybe a trail that goes completely around Lake Tahoe.If you go to Lake Tahoe take the Tahoe Queen across the Lake.Hope you have a great trip.

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

the hiker wrote:

Also I think that there is a road open now or maybe a trail that goes completely around Lake Tahoe.If you go to Lake Tahoe take the Tahoe Queen across the Lake.Hope you have a great trip.

Full Circle Route:
Tahoe City to Spooner Lake - Hwy 28
Spooner Lake to South Lake Tahoe - US 50
South Lake Tahoe to Tahoe City - Hwy 89

moffie100

Michael Frye has an exceptional app you can load on your phone for Yosemite. Shows all the trails, tips on where to get the best shots, time of year, time of day, weather. Locations, examples of shots. See what y think.

Robeng Loc: California

MarkintheHV wrote:

I just had a business trip drop in my lap that will take me to Sacramento, CA for a time frame of my choosing. Since I have this need to take photos, I am torn between planning a weekend in the Donner Lake Area or Yosemite. I love photographing waterfalls as well as the Milky Way.

Which area would be best?

If you love taking pictures of waterfalls then its a no brainer. Yosemite! There are a bunch of waterfalls and depending on time of the year a whole bunch of people too. Yosemite did not get a lot of rain this year.

MarkintheHV Loc: Hudson Valley

skingfong wrote:

Right now, it'll be harder to shoot the Milky Way as a moon gets fuller. I was just out there last week. I should have gone the week before.

According to what I read, on 7/26 we have a new moon!

Forrestloop Loc: Los Angeles

MarkintheHV wrote:

I think I am starting to lean towards heading to Tahoe. I think I can find most of what I want out there, and save Yosemite for a winter vacation

You can forget about a winter vacation. Cause you wont be able to enter or leave if you get trapped..

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

If you don't have one, and you are over 60, make sure you get your lifetime free pass to get into any national park. I think it will cost $5.
If you already paid, you can get a refund if you ask with your receipt. :-)
SS

riverlass Loc: northern California

SharpShooter wrote:

If you don't have one, and you are over 60, make sure you get your lifetime free pass to get into any national park. I think it will cost $5.
If you already paid, you can get a refund if you ask with your receipt. :-)
SS

Yes... great idea. :thumbup:

Meives Loc: FORT LAUDERDALE

Forrestloop wrote:

You can forget about a winter vacation. Cause you wont be able to enter or leave if you get trapped..

I was to Yosemite the end of January and I loved it. I could not go to Glacier Point, but the lower area was open and beautiful. David

TeeBee

California is under a sever drought so getting waterfall pictures is going to be hard. Even is the best of times Spring time or even winter is the best.
BYW I live in Sonora which is the largest spot in the road close to Yosemite and I never go in the summer. I just hate crowds. Tahoe is good but stay away from the lake if you go on a holiday week end

shutterbob Loc: Tucson

I used to live in CA and have been to most of the spots in the Sierras that have been mentioned. Yosemite is some place that everyone should see. It truly is a national treasure. But I will never visit it again in the summer tourist season. The crowds are unbearable in the valley, and the heat can sometimes hover around 100 degrees. By the end of summer Yosemite Falls may not even be flowing a trickle of water as I found out 2 years ago when I and a few friends rode our motorcycles there. None of them had ever been there and they were pretty disappointed. Winter can be cold but I have gotten some pretty nice pics of ice fog floating above the Merced River. May and Oct/Nov are also nice, and generally a lot less crowded. I think your time would be better spent in the Tahoe area. It is closer to Sac. and though still crowded, most of the people are spread out over a much larger area.