National park tips: Here’s a Yosemite Valley spot for great reflections

If there’s been rain in the Yosemite area recently, go see Mirror Lake. In drier months it’s more meadow than lake. But when there’s water, it gives you startling reflections of Mt. Watkins and the walls of Yosemite Valley. It’s about a 1-mile hike (flat) from the Mirror Lake shuttle bus stop.

In honor of this year’s National Park Service centennial, the Travel section is posting 100 park travel ideas and tips based on trips staff travel writer Christopher Reynolds has taken, along with photo-op advice from Times photographer Mark Boster. We’ll post one per day through Dec. 31.

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See travel videos by Reynolds from around the world.