Post Peak Pass, Aerial Photo Labeled

I came across a stunning aerial image by Tim Lawnicki on Flickr of Post Peak and the surrounding area. In the photo is the Ansel Adams Wilderness within the Sierra National Forest, with some of southeastern Yosemite National Park. It’s a spectacular view of this remote part of the Sierra Nevada. We trekked across this trail on our 2007 backpacking trip. Serendipitously, the photo’s lighting even looks like it is very similar, like it was taken at the same time of day, and both were even in September. With Tim’s permission, I had to mark our trail and add a few labels. On our trip, we came over Post Peak Pass, travelled the ridge, then took the trail down into Yosemite National Park. We were only in Yosemite for 45 minutes since we took the first right and headed back up to Isberg Pass, which is just outside the photo. Also, I’ll mention that Triple Divide Peak is just a mile away following the crest at top right.

Seeing the different perspective is really neat. It looks like he was flying fairly low to catch this much clear detail, but things look far different than they did on the ground. I remember the massive boulders on Post Peak Pass that we had to navigate. Here you can barely discern them. I also remember the incredible slick granite drop-off to the east of the ridge between Post Peak Pass and Isberg Pass to the uppermost Ward Lake. At the time, it crossed my mind if you ventured too far off the top of the ridge on that side, you’d be a goner. The solid rock just got steeper and steeper and the lake disappeared from view. In the aerial shot you really don’t have a sense of that. One thing that does match the feel – I recall as we hiked higher up to Post Peak Pass, the surrounding landscape became dominated by the gray granite of the Sierra Nevada batholith. Up there, it looked like everything was rock, even though we had hiked in the forest most of the way.