Yosemite Valley -- Day 2

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Mariposa Grove of Big Trees

We woke up bleary-eyed quite early the next morning because the cold that had pervaded our ‘unheated’ tent throughout the night had made sound sleep impossible.

We had spent the night practically tossing and turning. (And silently cursing ourselves)

We were to visit the ‘Mariposa Grove of Big Trees’ that day.

Avi generally gets up earlier than me and gets ready for the day. He is a ‘lark’ while I am an ‘owl’. It is my midnight when he gets up, that too cheerfully and greets the day.

Some people are just plain crazy and Avi is one of them.

So, that day too, he got up and with all the paraphernalia--toothbrush, toothpaste, towel, clothes etc. stepped out to go to the nearby toilette-block.

I watched him go with sleepy, drooping eyelids and turned on my side to try to sleep for another hour.

However, Avi was back in 30 seconds and hastily closed the flap of the tent that served as a door.

“What happened? You forgot something?” I asked him crossly. I wanted to sleep a little.

“No, Charu. I did not forget anything but there is a wild animal out there which is blocking my way.” He said.

That woke me up fast enough. My heart started beating faster.

“Is it a Grizzly”?

Visions of being attacked by a Grizzly bear flashed before my eyes. Avi was right. We shouldn’t have come into this wilderness.

Avi smiled.

“Nothing quite so big, dear.” he said with a chuckle. “It is only like a very large squirrel.”

My respect for that unknown animal came down.

“Must be a chipmunk.” I said. “Let me see it.”

I got up in my excitement, but Avi restrained me.

“Don’t go out. It is quite ferocious. When I tried to shoo it away, it bared its fangs.” He warned me.

“Then it can’t be a chipmunk. How does it look”?

I was still curious but did not want to find out for myself.

“I told you. Like a large squirrel. It has black and white stripes on its face instead of on the back. It looked quite cute before it showed me its fangs.” Avi said.

“Oh, how lucky you are to see a wild animal face to face.” I envied Avi.

“All that is fine but now we cannot get ready till it is gone.” Avi had more mundane concerns.

We waited for about ten minutes and then cautiously peeped outside.

No wild animal there.

Gingerly we stepped out, ready to beat a hasty retreat in case the animal attacked.

Thankfully, the animal was gone.

(Later, back in Frisco, I showed some pictures to Avi and he identified the animal as a badger.

“Let us be thankful that it was not a skunk.” I consoled him because he was peeved at being outsmarted by a mere badger.)

Then we got ready, had our breakfast and boarded the bus to the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees.

It was a beautiful journey made even more enjoyable by the witty commentary by the driver. He told us how in former times, a stagecoach traversed the same route. There were three classes on the stagecoach. The first-class passengers rode, the second-class walked and the third-class PUSHED the stagecoach. Kidding, of course!

At one point, he promised to show us a big, 8-feet high mushroom which he called ‘a vegetable curiosity like no other’ and which turned out to be a mushroom-shaped boulder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariposa_Grove

http://www.yosemite.ca.us/mariposa_grove_of_giant_sequoias/

http://images.google.co.in/images?q=giant+sequoia+trees&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=5&ct=title

The above links would give some idea about how huge the trees actually are.

In my childhood, I had seen a photo in the National Geographic Magazine (Where else?) which showed a car passing through a tunnel cut into a giant tree. That picture had fired my curiosity and that is why we were visiting the Mariposa Grove now.

The tallest trees that I had seen till that time were the two Eucalyptus trees on our estate which had grown so tall that they had dwarfed all the mango, tamarind, jackfruit and jamun trees all around them. Those Eucalyptus trees were like a beacon and could be seen in the ‘panchkroshi’ i.e. an area with a radius of 5 ‘kos’.

Avi claimed that Himalayan Deodars that he had seen were very tall, but I dismissed it as a ‘tall story’ because I know how proud he is of all things Himalayan.

He acts as though he has a monopoly over the Himalayas.

But, both of us dropped our jaws when we saw the Giant Sequoias in the Mariposa Grove.

At 300 feet height, they easily were the tallest trees that we had seen.

Just to give you an idea of the scale of things, -- average Mango, tamarind, jackfruit, Jamun trees are about 40-60 feet, the height of a 4-story building, while an average Giant Sequoia compares well with a 25-story ‘highrise’ building.

Not only the height but the girth of these trees is also impressive.

However, it was not our day. First the badger had ‘badgered’ us and now the snowfall froze us.

When we had reached it was bright and we had gawked at all the notable Big Trees, (The Grizzly Giant, The Bachelor, The Tree Graces, The Telescope, The Tunnel Tree) but now it became cloudy and all too soon, lovely, white snowflakes floated down slowly.

It was incredibly beautiful. The white snowflakes against the background of the red bark and the green foliage of the Big Trees made a lasting memory.

It was also damnably cold.

We were ill-prepared for the snowfall, the very first snowfall of my life. I was wearing a thick cardigan but my feet were almost bare because I was wearing open ‘chappals’.

Apparently, the other tourists were equally surprised by the snowfall. Shivering, all of us ran back to the open tram, which gave some shelter.

The Australian lady offered to give me her socks but I did not want to deprive her.

I heard another lady say to her friend. “Look at those Indians. We should take a photo of them just to show what kind of weather we had at Mariposa.”

The kind tram-driver shortened his commentary and brought us back to the closed, heated bus rather early.

Ah, the benign warmth that liquefied our frozen blood again and made stiff fingers and toes supple!

Why do people crib about Global Warming?

The bus came back to the Valley and we spent another night of tossing and turning due to cold.

The next day, we were back in Frisco, beautiful, warm, sunny Frisco.

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