Dogwood, Yosemite Valley

Our annual fall trip to Yosemite, camping in a quiet site with a killer view of Half Dome. We can watch the sunset paint the grey peaks the most gorgeous pinks as we sit at our picnic table and have dinner. 
There isn't much color in the woods, so this image is important to me. Leaves are turning brown and falling before they entertain us with any kind of bright display.

The drive across California was hot and dry, many fields along the highway left fallow because of the drought. One immense brown dusty tract had a small hand-lettered sign hammered into the hard ground: No Water. This could have been a simple statement, or a political message against the way the state is handling water allotments. Any political indictment was a bit tempered by the unfortunate location of this barren field: surrounded as it was by cotton fields in various stages of bloom and harvest. Cotton is a water hungry crop that perhaps has no business in a dry environment, but there is always more to a story than meets the eye. What is quite clear is that there is a terrible water shortage here, trees are dying, people are losing their livelihoods, and we need rain. Please.