As night fell on Yosemite, we took a much needed rest and ate dinner. The kids were put into their pajamas for the ride home. They were pretty tired, but given the crazy day we put them through, they were in good spirits. After dinner we drove around waiting for the sky to get as dark as it possibly could and to let the kids fall asleep. When they did finally pass out the sky was pitch black and the Moon had set behind the mountains. It was the perfect time to venture around the valley and take in the stars and Milky Way before heading home. Taking photos of the night sky in a dark location like this is a treat on its own, but to take photos of the night sky with the silhouette of the Yosemite Valley below was a dream come true.

We first stopped near Half Dome and ventured into the meadows. My brother and I thought it would be fun to do some light painting photos. I sent him off into the meadow with my headlamp and he placed it behind him on the ground. It made for this really fun shot of him standing casually against the epic night sky. After this we drove along the road that led out of the valley and stopped to capture the Milky Way against the granite walls. Earlier in the day those walls seemed staggeringly large, but with the limited night vision it was hard to see them anymore. When reviewing the photos, it was interesting to see how the mountains were now being dwarfed by the night sky and stars above them. It was like we had zoomed out and the once large mountains were now tiny compared to the immensity of space. It was another one of those moments where I felt connected while at the same time feeling incredibly small.

After a few more stops we decided to head home. It was hard for me to leave but I looked at it like not overeating my favourite food. If you have a taste it somehow doesn’t become normal, it’s still a treat. In the dark of night the journey home wasn’t nearly as exciting as the trip in. The winding road that we came in on was almost mesmerizing on the way out. We were bleary eyed and the lines of the road set against the blackest of the black night made the first hour of our journey feel pretty isolated. We hadn’t seen a car or a person for a few hundred miles. When we finally reached Oakdale, we felt we’d arrived back in civilization. It was a mixed feeling of relief and like we’d just returned from a trip to a fantasy land. We fuelled up our brains with some coffee and were on our way. San Francisco was still two and a half hours away.

We arrived back in the bay area at around 2:00am, almost 24 hours after we had left. Our journey was over and to answer the question: was it worth it? Absolutely. I have a feeling there are only a few places on Earth where you can get this sensation of being small but a part of something much, much bigger. It made me understand the importance of a moment and that was magnified when I looked at the faces of my kids. I’ve always wondered how I could slow down time because as an adult time passing seems to accelerate at an ever growing rate. What this place made me realize is that I’ve been failing to stop and smell the roses. The day-in and day-out routine of the modern world is really good at keeping us distracted from noticing time pass. When we have those ‘wake up’ moments and realize time has ticked away, we wonder where it went. Without sounding overly cliche, this trip helped me see that slowing down time was simply done by stopping and taking notice of everyday things. Observe change, growth, death, renewal, and adaptation. In a way the shortness of this journey is what made it so valuable. It’s these types of adventures that etch time on our consciousness and I look forward to doing many, many more like it in the future.

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