Yosemite 1938: On the Trail with Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe

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Yosemite 1938: On the Trail with Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe

Through September 3, 2006

In 1938, Ansel Adams took a trip to Yosemite National Park with friends Georgia O'Keeffe, David McAlpin, and Godfrey and Helen Rockefeller. Adams took photographs both of the landscape and of these individuals documenting the adventure. Adams arranged his work into three handcrafted albums, one of which was given to McAlpin. The exhibition displays photographs from the pages of these journals, including some of Adams' best-known natur images, and provides an intimate look at this memorable group of friends.

Yosemite 1938: On the Trail with Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe was organized by the National Museum of Wildlif Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Wall texts from the exhibit

In September of 1938, Ansel Adams, Georgia O'Keeffe, David McAlpin, and Helen and Godfrey S. Rockefeller took a memorable pack trip through Yosemite National Park. Upon their return, Adams made three albums to commemorate the trip and presented them as gifts to his travel companions. The album on view here belonged to friend and supporter David McAlpin. In 2000, McAlpin's wife, Sarah Sage Stewart McAlpin, kindly donated the album to the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

The album documents a wonderful excursion through Yosemite, but it is more than a typical photo album; it is a work of art in and of itself, carefully laid out and hand-assembled by Adams. The 48 photographs on 42 pages present highlights of the trip, with a fine combination of broad landscapes, earthy close-ups, and posed portraits. The album gives a clear sense of the journey, while it also reveals Adams's philosophy on photography, art, and life.

All images in this exhibition are on loan from the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Adams, O'Keeffe, McAlpin, and the Rockefellers departed for the High Sierra on Sunday, September 11, 1938. With them went a pack-string of fourteen mules, enough animal power to haul all the camping, kitchen, and photo equipment, with a few extra mounts for those who wished to ride. The ten-day trip through the high country was not particularly arduous, outfitted as they were with plenty of blankets, food, and hired help. Assisting the group were local backcountry experts Al Kay, Alvin Rhode, Robert Barnett, and Lile Pierce, who assumed the duties of guiding, packing, unpacking, setting up camp, and cooking. Five campers with four hired hands is a luxurious ratio when it comes to wilderness treks. Adams had arranged everything with convenience in mind, so the campers could photograph, hike, or relax as the mood struck them.

It was reportedly quite cold on a number of evenings, particularly after the group climbed to 10,000 feet and camped near Tuolumne Pass. Ever positive, Adams recalled that everyone considered it a "prime adventure." Mornings began with hot coffee and a good breakfast. Adams was an early riser, who liked to be up with the sun so he could take advantage of dawn's dramatic light. During the day, the party made small excursions from their base camp or trekked to their next campsite. Gas lamps enhanced the light of the campfire at night, and the party scheduled dinner for after sunset to allow for more photography at dusk.

To have the group in Yosemite, seeing and appreciating the land that he loved, must have been uplifting for Adams. His later reports of the excursion are glowing. In his autobiography he wrote, "O'Keeffe loved campfires and would stand close to them in her voluminous black cape, her remarkable features and her dark hair gleaming in the flickering light. She never seemed bored or tired and enjoyed every moment of the trip."

YOSEMITE 1938, the album and the trip, tell a number of important stories about Ansel Adams and his relationships with friends, patrons, artists, and nature. The photographs show us many of Adams's favorite spots in the Sierra, from the Tuolumne Meadows and the Cathedral Peak region to his beloved Lyell Fork of the Merced River. Adams designed the excursion to show off Yosemite at its best for some of his best friends. He hoped that the restorative and spiritual power of Yosemite would affect his companions the way it had affected him. We will never know the conversations that happened around the campfire or be able to recreate the feeling of looking at Half Dome for the first time with Adams at our side, but we can experience the pleasure of looking through this album, a remarkable record of a singular journey through the Sierra with one of its greatest proponents.

This map shows the approximate route Ansel Adams and company took on their ten-day trek through Yosemite.

1. On Friday, September 9, 1938, Adams took the group to Glacier Point, where he pointed out all the remarkable places the party would be visiting.

2. On Sunday, September 11, the group left Best's Studio and the Yosemite Valley. Best's studio was originally owned by Adams' father-in-law, Harrie Cassie Best. In 1936, Adams and his wife, Virginia, inherited the studio, which is now the Ansel Adams Gallery.

3. They took the Snow Creek Trail to the Tuolumne Meadows.

4. They spent their first night at the Budd Creek Campground.

5. Monday, the party turned south, on the Sunrise Trail to the Echo Peaks, where they camped for two nights.

6. Wednesday, they trekked to the Merced Lake High Sierra Camp.

7. The party visited Washburn Lake while at Merced Lake.

8. Thursday, they spent a chilly night at about 10,000 feet at the Vogelsang High Sierra Camp.

9. Friday morning, they went to the Lyell Fork of the Merced River, Adams' favorite camping spot. The party stayed on the Lyell Fork for three nights, Friday through Sunday.

10. While on the Lyell Fork, they took a day trip up to Isberg Pass and Post Peak Pass for a grand view of the High Sierra. On Monday, they descended and slept at Merced Lake. Tuesday, September 20, they returned to the Yosemite Valley, passing Nevada and Vernal Falls en route.

Ansel Adams

(19021984)

Ansel Adams is among the most recognized figures in 20th-century American photography. Yosemite was one of his favorite places, and its stunning vistas became trademark subjects for Adams' elegant yet bold depictions of the dramatic landscape of the American West.

Born in San Francisco, Adams trained as a concert pianist as a youth; but in his twenties, he set his aspirations on a career in photography. When he was 14, he first became interested in photography after receiving a Kodak Box Brownie camera from his parents while vacationing in Yosemite. His love of nature and landscape as a subject for photography was fostered by his work in Yosemite with the Sierra Club beginning in 1919. He became very familiar with the park's topography while working as a guide for Sierra Club treks; and he was a guardian of the LeComte Memorial Lodge, the Sierra Club building that served as Yosemite's first visitor center. He was a member of the organization's board of directors from 1934 to 1971.

By 1923 he was using a 6 1/2 x 8 1/2-inch Korona view camera to produce elegantly composed and meticulously planned photographs. As a mature photographer, Adams employed a wide range of cameras to achieve various effects. Among his many achievements was his role as one of the founders of the f.64 group in San Francisco in 1932. The group's members were dedicated to producing unmanipulated images. The photographs in this exhibition reflect this interest in the pure, unaltered photographic image. Adams is renowned for his technical skills, including the development of the "zone system," a scale system used to capture a wide, subtle, and carefully balanced range of white, gray, and black tones in the image. Adams' understanding of how to gauge and use light to produce tone is one of his most famous aesthetic and technical skills.

Adams was an ardent conservationist and environmentalist. In 1985, a mountain peak in Yosemite National Park was named in his honor.

Georgia O'Keeffe

(18871986)

Georgia O'Keeffe is among the best-known American artists of the 20th century. She is perhaps most recognized for her beautiful paintings of flowers, the American Southwest, and cityscapes. O'Keeffe is associated especially with New Mexico. Like Ansel Adams, she drew endless inspiration from nature and, in her case, the stark forms of the desert landscape. In 1924, she married Alfred Stieglitz, an undisputed pioneer in the history of photography. She became the subject of many of his most famous photographs.

Adams and O'Keeffe first met in 1929 at an artists' retreat outside of Taos, New Mexico. Her participation in this camping trip attests to her friendship with Adams and to the extent of her connection to the world of photography. Adams reportedly was disappointed that she did not bring her painting equipment with her to Yosemite. Instead, she enjoyed the experience as an observer.

(above: Ansel Adams, American, 1902-1984, Untitled (Georgia O'Keeffe and Tree), c. 1938, Black and white photograph,. National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, WY, Gift of Sarah S. and David H. McAlpin )

David Hunter McAlpin III

(18971989)

David McAlpin was one of the participants in the camping trip recorded by Ansel Adams. In fact, the pages on view here were part of the album Adams gave to McAlpin following their excursion. McAlpin was the grandson of William Rockefeller and a cousin to Godfrey S. Rockefeller, who was also on the trip.

A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, McAlpin was a prominent businessman in an investment trust firm, an important philanthropist, and a collector of photography. Along with Adams and Beaumont Newhall, McAlpin helped to establish the department of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and he was instrumental in founding the history of photography department at Princeton University. He was also an amateur photographer and indulged this interest while on the Yosemite camping trip.

(above: Ansel Adams, American, 1902-1984, Untitled (David McAlpin), c. 1938, Black and white photograph. National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, WY, Gift of Sarah S. and David H. McAlpin )

Godfrey Stillman Rockefeller

(18991983)

Helen Gratz Rockefeller

(19001985)

Godfrey S. Rockefeller was the grandson of financier William Rockefeller and a cousin to David McAlpin. A graduate of Yale University, Godfrey was an investment banker and later became chairman of the textile company Cranston Print Works. Like his cousin, Godfrey was an important collector of photography, and both men purchased special cameras in preparation for the Yosemite adventure. Godfrey chose to work with large-format cameras and film on this trip, using 8 x 10-inch negatives. He relied on Adams for technical assistance in handling this equipment. Helen and he had three children.

(above: Ansel Adams, American, 1902-1984, Untitled (Godfrey Rockefeller), c. 1938, Black and white photograph. National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, WY, Gift of Sarah S. and David H. McAlpin )

Captions for exhibit images

Plate 1

Yosemite September 1938

Ansel Adams had long been a fan of straightforward, classic typography. He used title pages laid out in a similar, balanced fashion for many of his professional publications.

All of the photographs in this exhibit were taken by Ansel Adams during his trip through Yosemite in September of 1938 with Georgia O'Keeffe, David McAlpin, and Helen and Godfrey Rockefeller. He printed this selection documenting the trip upon his return and compiled three albums, which he presented to his companions around Christmas of

1938.

Plate 2

Yellow Pine

The rough surfaces of tree trunks were an Adams' favorite. Close-ups and medium-range shots of trees are prominent parts of his oeuvre and appear throughout this album. In this picture, the heavily textured trunk of the pine dominates the lower portion of the image. The foreshortening and extension of the tree through the center of the picture communicates both great height and massiveness.

Plate 3

Half Dome

This photograph was taken from the top of Snow Creek Trail on the first day of the trek. The composition is classic Adams. He often placed a tree directly in front of a mountain or other geological feature, comparing similar shapes while simultaneously bringing out contrasts. Here, the top branch of the tree reaches up and seems to support Half Dome, while the bend of the main branch echoes the Dome's upper curve.

Plate 4

Untitled (Water Over Rock)

Water delicately flows over the top of this rock, fanning out into rivulets, creating a shape that looks like a palm frond. The scale of the rock is difficult to judge. Negatives from the trip housed at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, feature campers sitting next to the rock, showing that it is larger than might be expected, approximately three feet across.

Plate 5

Tuolumne Meadows

The single tree in the center foreground is the main subject here. On the horizon, Mount Dana, Mount Gibbs, Kuna Crest, and Mammoth Peak are visible. This photograph probably was taken from Pothole Dome looking east. The party camped in the Tuolumne Meadows on their first night at the Budd Creek Campground.

Plate 6

Cathedral Peak

This photo epitomizes Adams' sense of composition. The rocks in the foreground take the eye back and to the left into the picture. The lake continues this movement, but shifts direction to the right. Attention is then drawn upwards to Cathedral Peak, which reaches almost to the top of the frame. This creates a sinuous line binding the picture together. The sun shines on the rocks in the foreground and on the peak in the background, contrasting nicely with the dark sky above and darker water in the middle.

Plate 7

Untitled (O'Keeffe and Tree)

Likely taken next to Upper Cathedral Lake, this picture shows Georgia O'Keeffe leaning against a large, old tree stump. With her face in profile and her back to the trunk, the tree and O'Keeffe seem like one entity-solid, earthy, and resilient. The stump may have been something O'Keeffe remarked upon as an interesting visual form. Along the trail, she pointed out many trees and rocks that interested her.

Plate 8

Echo Peaks

Adams often captures the drama of gathering cumulous clouds, towering over a beautiful landscape. Here, the Echo Peaks fill the bottom third of the picture, while the rest of the image is dedicated to the tumult above. In these wide shots, the pattern of sunlight on the landscape is an important compositional element. The sun shines on the peaks in the background, while the foreground elements are cast in shadow. The bright peaks in the background form a band of light in the picture that balances the dark foreground and darkening sky.

Plate 9

Unicorn Peak

This photo makes an interesting contrast to the previous landscape, Echo Peaks (Plate 8). Similar to Echo Peaks, the clouds and sky take up roughly two thirds of the image, with the landscape filling the bottom third. The areas of light and dark are reversed here, however. Unicorn Peak and the ridge behind it are in shade, forming a dark ribbon running horizontally through the picture.

Plate 10

Cockscomb Crest

Sunlight illuminates the tree in the lower left corner of the photo and shines on the small snow banks located on the right side. The texture of the rock on the dome and the peak are similar, but this picture contrasts the two forms, the rounded hump of the dome and the jagged outline of the peak.

Plate 11

H.R. on Echo Peaks

This picture of Helen Rockefeller on Echo Peak is a fairly typical mountain portrait. The rock wall dominates the picture, but putting Rockefeller next to it on the rocky ground gives a sense of communion with nature.

Plate 12

Echo Ridge (Mount Clark and Echo Ridge)

Another picture taken from a different position of the same ridge on the same trip appears in Ansel Adams' Autobiography.. The high clouds and fairly even light in this photograph do not provide much contrast. Similar to Cockscomb Crest (Plate 10), this photograph compares different natural elements, the blocky formation of rocks in the foreground with the smoother planes of the ridge in the rear.

Plate 13

Echo Ridge

The Echo Peaks and Matthes Crest are featured here in a composition similar to Cathedral Peak (Plate 6) with the summits rising nearly to the top of the frame. The faces of the peaks in the left half of the image are bathed in sunlight, a visual contrast to the darker trees in the fore- and middle ground. One tree sticks up from the bottom of the frame, bisecting the two peaks and breaking up the band of light.

Plate 14

Untitled (Helen Rockefeller)

This portrait of Helen Rockefeller presents her in a contemplative pose, looking out into the distance, perhaps reflecting on the beauty of nature laid out before her. The slightly low angle from which this photo was taken raises her up, making her look powerful, healthy, and vigorous-the conqueror of the mountain contemplating the view. Later in the album Adams included other portraits with similar iconography (Plates 26, 40, and 42).

Plate 15

Echo Creek

It is likely that this photograph was made in the lower end of Fletcher Meadow, on the Merced Lake Trail en route to the Merced Lake camp. The light in the picture illuminates a sand bar next to a clear, rippling stream. Here the darkness of the meadow fills the bottom two thirds of the picture, while a band of darker trees delineates the lighter rock formations in the upper third of the photo.

Plate 16

Fungus

In addition to his broad landscapes, Adams was also known for his close-ups of smaller, natural elements. This photograph contrasts the light outer flesh of the mushroom to its dark inner gills. The composition differs from the mountain pictures, which are generally divided into thirds. Here the undulating, biomorphic form is central, nearly filling the frame, making the scale difficult to gauge. In some of his work, Adams sought to extract elements from their environment and find abstraction in natural forms.

Plate 17

Barnett (Robert Barnett)

Adams included portraits of all the participants on the trip guests and hired hands (except for himself and for Al Kay, whose visage remains a mystery). Creating a visual record of the trip, for Adams, meant recalling not only the landscape features, but also the associates who made the journey more pleasurable.

Plate 18

Juniper near Merced Lake Camp

A very similar photograph taken within a few minutes of this one, judging from the position of the clouds, appears in Yosemite and the Range of Light, titled Juniper Tree, Triple Peak Canyon (dated c. 1940). The two images are taken from slightly different angles, so that more of the tree appears in the album, while more of the rocky outcropping appears in the book. The Triple Peak Fork of the Merced River flows into Washburn Lake after joining with several other tributaries. It is possible that this tree is in Triple Peak Canyon, but also possible that it is located closer to Merced Lake, as Adams

noted in the album.

Plate 19

Washburn Lake

While at the Merced Lake Camp, the party also visited Washburn Lake, a few miles southeast. In this photo, the dark bow of the mountains contrasts with the glare off of the lake and the lighter clouds in the sky.

Plate 20

Untitled (Tree Trunk)

This old and weathered trunk has a smooth, grooved appearance; it almost seems to flow into the ground. Adams' other tree images in the album tend to focus on the rougher texture of bark or the overall shape of the tree. As mentioned, O'Keeffe pointed out different trees and rocks along the trail, this trunk may have been something she found intriguing.

Plate 21

Untitled (David McAlpin)

East Coast businessman David McAlpin probably did not go unshaven very often while at home. But in the High Sierra, a more casual atmosphere prevailed. This portrait seems more personal and less formal than some of the later portraits in the album (see portraits of the Rockefellers and O'Keeffe on Plates 40 and 42).

Plate 22

Merced Lake Country

This twisted tree appears to bow under the weight of the full branches on its left side, forming a weighted, arching shape. From the Merced Lake area, the party traveled up and over the Vogelsang Pass and arrived at the Lyell Fork of the Merced River, one of Adams' favorite places in the region. There are no photographs of this portion of the journey, however. The next plates begin in the Lyell Fork area.

Plate 23

Lyell Fork of Merced River

The peak nominated to be named Mount Ansel Adams by the Sierra Club appears in reflection on the water, banded between a crown of dark trees above and a string of reeds along the bank. When Adams told his companions that the Sierra Club had suggested naming the peak after him, O'Keeffe teased him for days, implying that the only reason he had brought them there was to show off his little mountain. The peak was officially named Mount Ansel Adams on April 22nd, 1985, the first anniversary of his death.

Plate 24

By Lyell Fork

This image is taken from a nearly identical vantage point as an early, popular Adams photo, the slightly soft-focus Lodge Pole Pines, Lyell Fork of the Merced River, 1921. Unlike the earlier picture, this one is sharply focused and features even light, in contrast to the hazy, glowing effect of his earlier photograph. This picture reflects the aesthetics of the f/64 group, which Adams helped found. f/64 championed straight photography, meaning photographs that were uninfluenced by pictorial traits such as soft-focus, coloring, or other distorting effects.

Plate 25

Peaks in Lyell Fork of Merced Canyon

Perhaps as an in-joke Adams included four images in the album of the peak that would be named Mount Ansel Adams after his death. It is the tallest peak in this picture, highlighted in sunshine. The other subjects of this photograph are the blocky boulders resting on the smooth glacier-polished stone in the foreground.

Plate 26

Untitled (Godfrey Rockefeller)

In contrast to the earlier portrait of McAlpin (Plate 21), who had a serious five-o'clock shadow, this portrait of Godfrey Rockefeller shows the subject as clean-shaven and looking fairly regal with head tilted up and eyes gazing out into the distance. The portrait seems more obviously posed and formal, less personal than the picture of McAlpin.

Plate 27

Rodgers, Electra Peaks

The party stayed at the Lyell Fork Camp for three nights and had plenty of time to explore the region. Mount Rodgers (on the left) and Mount Electra (on the right) are just northeast of Mount Ansel Adams. Below the three peaks are a series of small mountain lakes, one of which is pictured here.

Plate 28

Mts. Maclure and Lyell

Just north of Mount Rodgers and Mount Electra (Plate 27) are Mount Maclure and Mount Lyell. Another of the small mountain lakes that dot this region can be seen here, below

the white patterns of eroding snow banks higher up on the mountainside.

Plate 29

Lyell Fork

A picture of the same fallen tree appears in Adams' books Yosemite and the Range of Light, Yosemite and the High Sierra, and Yosemite. It is unclear whether that picture was taken on the same day or trip, but it seems likely. The photograph in the album shows the same subject from a different angle but in similar light with the same smooth water behind reflecting the mountainous landscape. The gnarled roots of the fallen tree clearly interested Adams.

Plate 30

Glacier Polish

This image appears in Yosemite and the Range of Light and Ansel Adams at 100. Along the trail, the smooth surfaces created by glacier movement on the rocks in Yosemite interested O'Keeffe. Given the order of the album, following the route of the trip, these rocks are probably located in the Lyell Fork region. In this photograph, the massive rocks take up the bottom two thirds of the image. The sun hitting the rocks creates a highlight and brings attention to the smooth, round surface.

Plate 31

Lyell Fork

Mount Ansel Adams appears again in this photograph, and again is the tallest peak in the image (similar to Plate 25). The pack-string dominates the foreground, with a bank of trees separating fore from background.

Plate 32

Mt. Ritter

Mount Ritter is behind the chain of peaks that includes Electra, Rodgers, and Lyell. In this photograph, the summit rises almost to the top of the frame. The picture shows the massiveness of the mountain with all its craggy outcroppings. The white snowbanks break up the picture's surface, giving the photograph a more interesting visual pattern.

Plate 33

Untitled (David McAlpin)

The negatives of the trip, stored at the Center for Creative Photography, show that McAlpin was not the only participant posing without his shirt on; Adams also captured Godfrey Rockefeller shirtless, but he did not include those pictures in the album. This picture provides further evidence of the relaxed, casual atmosphere that must have predominated on the journey.

Plate 34

Untitled (Post Peak Pass)

While camped at the Lyell Fork of the Merced River, the party made an excursion up the Isberg Pass Trail to Post Peak Pass (elevation 10,650), pictured here, with Mount Ritter visible on the left. The spiky peaks in the center are the Minarets. Above, large cumulous clouds gather. Dark underneath, they cast shadow over much of the landscape below. Noticeable patches of light on the mountains draw attention to the background.

Plate 35

Al Rhode

For the modern camper, seeing so many glass bottles and jars may be a little shocking (imagine the weight). Cook Al Rhode brought a fully stocked kitchen with him on this expedition; lucky for him, they had an adequate pack-string to bear the burden of such a load. After Plate 35, all of the images in the album are portraits of the participants, which

may have been taken at various campsites along the route.

Plate 36

Untitled

top: David McAlpin, Al Rhode, Helen Rockefeller, Godfrey

Rockefeller, and Georgia O'Keeffe

bottom: Barnett, Rhode, Pierce

In the top photo, the group circles around Al Rhode and the campfire. This photograph, taken at the Lyell Fork campsite, shows Mount Ansel Adams for the fourth and final time in the album. In the bottom photo, three of the hands pose around the portable kitchen.

Plate 37

A Quiet Evening at Home

top: Helen and Godfrey Rockefeller

bottom: Camp hands

In the top photo, Helen and Godfrey Rockefeller sit in their camp chairs, relaxing after a long day of exploring. In the bottom photo the hired hands warm themselves next to the fire. To the far left may be Helen Rockefeller, holding up the magazine pictured in the top photo.

Plate 38

Untitled

top: Godfrey Rockefeller and camera

bottom: David McAlpin and camera

After their trip to the Southwest, Adams ordered new camera outfits for Godfrey Rockefeller and David McAlpin. Taking pictures was an important part of the journey, with the schedule arranged so the participants could photograph from dawn to dusk.

Plate 39

Untitled

top: David McAlpin

bottom: Al Rhode

In the top photo, McAlpin sits with a map on his knee. Behind him lies a pile of blankets and tents. Al Rhode relaxes in the bottom photo on his sleeping bag.

Plate 40

Untitled

left: Helen Rockefeller

right: David McAlpin

Similar portraits appear on Plates 40 and 42. Adams took pictures of Helen Rockefeller, Godfrey Rockefeller, and O'Keeffe using the same compositional idea. He shot the subjects from below, looking off into the distance and facing into the sun (also look at the portraits on Plates 14 and 26). This heroic pose communicates an air of power, health, and vigor, but is also more formal and less personal. These pictures are unlike the more informal pictures of David McAlpin, which show him relaxing, washing up, or goofing around (Plate 41).

Plate 41

Untitled

top: David McAlpin and Bisquick

bottom: Mule at Water

Clearly a humorous image, in this picture McAlpin poses wrapped in a blanket clutching a box of Bisquick, small comforts on a chilly Sierra night. Below the picture of McAlpin is a photo of a white mule, which may have been his mount on the trek.

Plate 42 Untitled

left: Godfrey Rockefeller

right: Georgia O'Keeffe

These photographs close the album. They are similar to the picture of Helen Rockefeller (Plate 40). From these final pages, one gets the impression that Adams and McAlpin felt the most comfortable with each other. Adams did not include any heroic shots of McAlpin, substituting casual and comical photos instead. After their stay on the Lyell Fork, the party packed up, headed out, and camped at Merced Lake. On Tuesday, September 20, they returned to Best's Studio in Yosemite Valley. After a day or two of rest, the group headed into San Francisco and, from there, went their separate ways.

(above: Ansel Adams, American, 1902-1984, Echo Creek, c. 1938, Black and white photograph. National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, WY, Gift of Sarah S. and David H. McAlpin )

(above: Ansel Adams, American, 1902-1984, Untitled (Water Over Rock) ,c. 1938, Black and white photograph. National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, WY, Gift of Sarah S. and David H. McAlpin )

(above: Ansel Adams, American, 1902-1984, Cathedral Peak, c. 1938, Black and white photograph. National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, WY, Gift of Sarah S. and David H. McAlpin )

(above: Ansel Adams, American, 1902-1984, Peaks in Lyell Fork of Merced Canyon, c. 1938, Black and white photograph. National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, WY, Gift of Sarah S. and David H. McAlpin )

(above: Ansel Adams, American, 1902-1984, Lyell Peaks, c. 1938. Black and white photograph. National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, WY, Gift of Sarah S. and David H. McAlpin )

(above: Ansel Adams, American, 1902-1984, Merced Lake Country, c. 1938, Black and white photograph. National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, WY, Gift of Sarah S. and David H. McAlpin )

(above: Ansel Adams, American, 1902-1984, Juniper Near Merced Lake Camp, c. 1938, Black and white photograph. National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, WY, Gift of Sarah S. and David H. McAlpin )

Editor's note: RL readers may also enjoy these additional articles and essays concerning Ansel Adams and American photography: