Mirror Lake (Lower Pool)

USA / California / Oakhurst /
Historical photos from circa 1907 show people paddling their canoes around a Mirror Lake that covered several acres and was maybe eight or ten feet deep. In 1957, while it was still one of the most photographed lakes in the world, one of the park rangers said that the lake was silting up so quickly that "someday we'll be calling it Mirror Meadows instead of Mirror Lake."
That someday is now.
Even during the spring snow melt about all that's left of the lake is a half dozen shallow ponds. By the end of Summer even that dries up leaving little more than a marsh.
Painting by Albert Bierstadt shows Mirror Lake as it appeared in the summer of 1863.

caltopo.com/map.html#ll=37.74885,-119.54956&z=16&b=t&o=...
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_Valley
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   37°44'53"N   119°32'59"W

Comments

  • 4/2018- most of Mirror Lake is dry (even in the spring).
This article was last modified 6 years ago