High-Angle Overlook of Yosemite Valley Floor from Valley Rim (1927)

A dizzying high-elevation overlook looking down from the granite rim onto the roads, meadows, and pine forests of the Yosemite Valley floor. — High-Angle Overlook of Yosemite Valley Floor from Valley Rim (1927) · Donald A. Hall Estate Collection

Climbing to the high-elevation granite rim of Yosemite Valley, Donald A. Hall Sr. captured this dizzying aerial-perspective photograph looking directly down onto the valley floor thousands of feet below. The exposure clearly reveals early National Park Service roadways, dirt connector trails, meadow clearings, and the meanders of the Merced River winding through dense ponderosa pine groves. The composition illustrates Hall's high-altitude mountaineering surveys and his fascination with top-down topological perspectives during his 1927 California travels.