Yellowstone to Yosemite, Day 7

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Photos from this day in Yosemite

The dentist office didn't open until 9 so I performed much like Sunday morning. This time the reader can only picture that screaming photog (me) until photo 19. After that we went to the dentist. We walked in and were thrilled there we no other patients in the waiting room because we obviously couldn't make an appointment. We waited for the receptionist behind the window to finish her phone call and noticed this cool photo of a coyote (if I remember correctly) sitting with its large mouth widely opened and its huge teeth threateningly exposed. The caption said something like Dr. Dale Soria, DDS, in Yosemite since 1988. After hearing our sad story the receptionist dashed our hopes of immediate care when she said, "Oh, I'm so sorry. He is on vacation." She explained that he never took a vacation from Yosemite National Park (that part didn't needan explanation) in twenty-two years, and this was his first day away. "Where did he go?" I wanted to know. Don't you? She gave us explicit directions to the nearest dentist 50 miles away in Oakhurst, and then gave us the option of walking out the door and around the building to the medical clinic. Maybe they'd give us an antibiotic. We took the latter, which was the sidewalk.

They gave us an appointment to come back at 11:30 so we went to the cafeteria to tease my tooth with hot coffee and cold juice. What's with this Yosemite and teeth thing? Ansel Adams had bad teeth. Of course he didn't get them here, but... The day before our last trip here I had to have a tooth removed, and Barb, who has been the office manager in a dentist office for 20 years (almost as long as Dr. Dale) had to remove the stitches while I sat in the chair by the window in our Wawona Hotel room.

We were back early and they were ready for us earlier. The doctor, knowing little of what to look for in a bad tooth, had to rely on Barb's expertise, and filled a prescription for penicillin after he was able to confirm her suspicions. We were off to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias! We didn't make it, and I'm ahead of myself here. First, the morning photos.

Somewhere in the Yellowstone blog I mentioned a Paul Strand stump. Now that we're here in Yosemite, and the first two photos in this gallery are of a small stump, let me explain. First of all, I've always been engrossed in the stories that appear in old stumps, much like those in rock. Many times I'll walk out of the way when I see a stump in the distance. Sometimes I get a shot, usually a thrill, always a story. Short version: Paul Strand was a great photographer who was born in 1890 and lived for 86 years. He became a friend of Ansel Adams through Alfred Stieglitz. Ansel Adams once brought him to Yosemite for a week. Although his host was rather busy during his visit, Paul went out for walks daily. One day Ansel asked him if he saw anything he'd like to photograph. "There is a stump," he replied. Imagine what he would have done with digital.

So that's the story with the first two shots; then come the opossum shots. Sorry, maybe it was a hangover from our attempts to stifle The Screamer, but this day the reflections across the Merced in about the same spot as yesterday now appear like anopossum. I wondered for a moment how many opossums might be misplaced because of the flooding back home.

On our Sunday drive Barb asked me if I ever took any shots of the chapel. Number 16 was the first so the answer was no. I started from the side and came away with only the idea of a cool photo. The steeple looks similar to the peak of granite above it from this angle and could be lined up in an interesting way if the light was right and the sky was special. This was not the day as you can see. And remember, The Screamer was waiting back in the car.

We stopped at Tunnel View on our way to the big trees. Who wouldn't? We also stopped at Alder Creek where I tripped my first shutter in this magnificent park in May of 2009. We pass the Wawona Hotel and I smile remembering we left this place in stitches, er, left stitches in this place back then. When we get to the hill to the grove we see something I only expected to see in the summer. The gate was down and we were directed to go back to the Wawona and wait for a shuttle. We decided to drive up to Glacier Point instead and return here tomorrow. On our way we stopped on the side of the road just before the Wawona and picked a few trees to bring home in photo form.

Glacier Point, home of the Firefall of old, is a magnificent place to view a large part of Yosemite. From there we can see much of the valley as well as many of the stars of this national park show. Half Dome is prominent, but from here you can see more than just a flat face with Ansel McGoo etched upon it (photos 74 & 75. what do you imagine?). In many of the photos in the gallery you can see Vernal Falls (the lower of the 2) and Nevada Falls. Find Vernal Falls in photo 36 and compare it with 39. Now here are 2 crops from 39. Thirty-two hundred feet can be quite revealing in a lot of ways. My friend Bradley Gelb has a picture of him standing out on that diving board in photo 53.

That little close up experiment reminds me of the GigaPan guy at Glacier Point when we were there. He was working on a pano when I was getting photos 53, 54 & 55. Maybe by next year I'll be able call him a fellow GigaPannner. I couldn't find his work from this day, but here is a GigaPan sunset from Glacier Point by Elliott Wolf from 2 days earlier.

After an exhilarating time on top, Barb & I returned to get more of the valley floor. My tooth was already starting to ease its demand for attention.

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