As the afternoon progresses something strange happens in the valley. It’s most likely due to the setting sun radiating less heat down onto the surface. As the air near the ground cools due to the snow and ice covering it and the air up a little bit higher stays warm it produces this rather amazing frozen fog.

Out in the middle of a meadow the site of this is pretty amazing but back in the trees it gets downright eerie. As the afternoon turns to evening the fog thickens into a cold, wet, frozen blanket that covers everything, eventually just disappearing rather quickly as the sun disappears behind Yosemite Falls.

This photographer walked from his car out into the meadow and disappeared from sight for a long while until the fog started to freeze off.