May Lake

Sometimes the usual rollercoaster of wet lab science becomes too much to handle and necessitates a short escape to avoid thinking about whether or not you will ever finish your PhD. I have found such respite at May Lake, a quiet but accessible offshoot of Tioga Road in Yosemite National Park. It may not be as glamorous as Half Dome or El Cap, but it is arguably the easiest backpacking trip in the park, roughly a mile hike until you reach the lake and its surrounding mountain landscape. This image captures the serenity of the lake - no people in sight, no sounds of screeching tires, and no worrying about an experiment that failed last week.