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Published: April 14th 2014
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Most peoples' main association with Yosemite National Park seems to be that that's where Yogi the Bear came from. Not true: he came from Yellowstone National Park or to be more precise: "Jellystone". On the other hand what Yosemite does have is actual bears. When
I think of Yosemite I think of the magnificent photos of Ansel Adams the famous American photographer of the mid-20th century whose black and white pictures taken around the park are hyper-real, textural and intense - of skies, forests and most especially giant granite cliffs, waterfalls, lakes and mountains.
Maria Chiara and I had one evening, one day and one morning in the park and we had a wonderful experience. After a long drive coming from the south (where we had inevitably lingered slightly too long at a vineyard tasting) we finally got to the park in the near dusk. We took a walk in Mariposa Grove to see some giant sequoia trees. These are among the oldest, tallest, widest and fastest growing living organisms on Earth. By the time we got to "Old Grizzly", a 2000 year old red mammoth, the light of the day was rapidly fading, all the other tourists seemed to
El Capitan
"O Captain! My Captain!" have disappeared and we had an eery walk back through forest which seemed a whole lot spookier all of a sudden.
We had to drive through the park in the pitch dark to get to our hotel and I was in a rush because we suspected that the restaurant there would finish early, like 9pm. I went into a massive sulk when it turned out that the food stopped at 8:30pm and so we ended up buying beef stew out of a can for $4. That was actually quite good, and at least I had bought a beer, chilled to perfection. I was shocked to the core when I took the first sip: without realising I had bought a weird hybrid that was actually half beer and tomato juice with clam. What in God's name is appealing about that, I ask you?!? MC was sniggering happily with her nice, old fashioned can of coca cola.
Yosemite National Park is big, but we were in Yosemite Valley which is easy to get to, has excellent infrastructure, and a good proportion of the best and most famous bits of the park: the famous peaks of Ansel Adams photos, plus numerous
waterfalls and lakes. If you're lucky you'll encounter deers and various birdlife, and if you're unlucky you'll meet a mountain lion and grizzly bear. Our first sight was Tunnel View which has a vista down the forested valley to the peaks of El Capitan and Sentinel Rock and Bridalveil Fall. We had arrived at this spot so early that we had it to ourselves... apart from a bride, a groom, a celebrant, a best man and two photographers. By the time Tina and Nathan (best wishes and congratulations) had married a little crowd of fascinated tourists had developed. They sure picked a good day and a spectacular spot.
Our main activity of the day was a hike up a gorge passing through the beautiful Vernal and Nevada Falls. At the top of the latter we decided to press on a little further and went on to Little Yosemite Valley. At this point there were no crowds at all and we were actually quite thrilled to see other people. This was mainly due to the fact that we both had the same thought: this is grizzly bear territory! If I were a bear I would have spent my time in
Little Yosemite - it was delightful.
Our last day was scheduled for rain - and lots of it. So I had said to Maria Chiara we can forget about seeing any mountains or beautiful reflections. I was proved wrong when we entered the park and went to the same vista point where we had started the day before (Tina and Nathan, etc.). Sure there was no blue sky, but it had stopped raining already and there were atmospheric puffy clouds dotted here and there around the valley looking slightly apocalyptic and best of all... it had snowed! Where the day before you could have fooled yourself it was summer, now there was snow almost as far down as we were, so we could take a picture from the same point as yesterday and it would look totally different.
We visited mirror lake, with pristine reflections of rocks, mountains and the grey sky. We thought the whole scene couldn't be anymore idyllic when three wild deer burst out of the forest, walked across the lake, jumped around a bit, and slipped back into the forest. As with many of the water features of the park Mirror Lake is seasonal
Giant Sequoias
Between 1800 and 2700 years old. How about that! - apparently by August it dries up completely!
We were starting to feel very smug about our weather luck when it started to rain - just as we were ready to leave. The problem was we were at 4000 feet above sea level and the road that we needed to take to leave the park went as high as over 6000 feet - driving in rain I have no problem with, but driving in a snow storm is not fun. Fortunately (in a way) we didn't know that was about to happen. We kept driving through forest, up and up and up, and I kept checking the car's temperature gauge. The rain got heaver, turned into sleet and when we got as low as 36 F (2 deg C) the snow kicked in. Before we got too far a ranger pulled us over. "Have you got snow tyres?" "No." "Have you got snow chains?" "No." He could also have asked "Have you ever driven in snow before, even a tiny little flurry?" and the answer would have been "no" to that too. We had a conundrum at this point as we really did need to take this road if
we were realistically going to catch a plane early that evening from San Francisco, and neither of us felt like paying for another ticket to London. Much to our relief the ranger said he had just done the drive in the opposite direction and the we "should be OK" as long as I drove carefully and slowly. I can tell you, I have never driven more carefully or slowly than I did for the next hour. We kept going higher, the snow got heavier and the temperature kept going downwards. By the time it got as low as 30 deg F (-1 deg C) I stopped mentioning the temperature to MC, as I was feeling scared enough as it was without panicking her unduly! At every corner, especially when we finally started to descend again, I fantasised about us slipping off a mountain ravine. I suppose that would be a fitting exit for two avid travellers. But that wasn't our fate: we finally got to the end of the park, the snow turned back into rain and then stopped altogether, and after an adventure crossing the state of California through native oak groves and old gold mining towns we got
to our flight on time after all! It was a fittingly dramatic last few hours in Yosemite... one of the most dramatic places on earth.
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Josevich
Josevich
lol!
so true. having strangers take your photo is almost always disappointing. enjoyed reading this blog about yosemite. cheers!