Beautiful pink clouds are illuminated as the last bit of twilight falls on Yosemite’s famous Half Dome. It is hard to convey just how colossal the face of Half Dome is when viewed from Yosemite Valley. To try and give you some idea, the camera is around six miles away from the peak of Half Dome from Cooks Meadow. It’s vertical face follows from the moment you get your first glimpse of Yosemite Valley. We call it Half Dome today but the native tribe that lived in Yosemite Valley called it Tis-sa-ack meaning “Cleft Rock” but they also had a story of how the tear stained face of the dome came to be. If you are interested, here is the short version of that legend:

Tis-sa-ack, who lived in a far away country, journeyed with her husband to the Valley of Ah-wah-nee. They had crossed the high mountains, carrying heavy burdens, and were footsore and weary from their long journey. They, were also very thirsty and were hurrying to reach the Valley, that they might drink from one of the clear lakes or streams, which they knew would be found there When at last they reached Ah-wei-ya (Mirror Lake), Tis-sa-ack, who was ahead of her husband, sat down to drink. Again and again she filled her basket, and drained it, so that when her husband reached the lake she had drunk up all of the water and the lake was dry. When he found that she had drunk up all of the water her husband became very angry, and forgetting the customs of his people, he beat her severely. Tis-sa-ack ran, but her husband ran after her and continued to beat her so that she laid down the baby basket containing her papoose. Then, when he did not stop, becoming very angry with the pain and humiliation, she turned and hurled her burden basket at him.

Then The Great Spirit himself, shocked by such conduct on the part of his children, became angry, and turned them all into granite. Tis-sa-ack became that noble mountain now called Half Dome, and today on the broken side of Half Dome can still be seen he