Yosemite Valley

Shauna in Tree Doorway

I felt like I was in Winnie the Pooh or leaving the Keebler Tree House.

Half Dome

Yose Mite

Y’know, they actually have shirts in the gift shops that separate Yosemite into Yose Mite. For those of you who have listened to Tom say this mispronunciation so often that you almost start to believe it’s normal, I thought you might be amused by that little fact.

“It’s like a MetroPark, but with better scenery.”
Tom, commenting on the crowds at Yosemite.

There are so many great quotes out there (Ansel Adams, John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt) that I could have used, but at this point in the trip, Tom’s really captures the essence of it.

We left San Francisco in the early afternoon yesterday, thinking that we would have plenty of time to beat the rush to Yosemite. Based on traffic yesterday, we did pretty good. However, once we got here and started asking about campground availability, things suddenly seemed a lot more crowded in the park. At our arrival, there were only two campgrounds that might have had anything open. We also asked about hikes with the ranger, but they were not nearly as helpful as their Yellowstone/Glacier counterparts. Their response was “They’re all good.” That’s not very helpful, especially when we find out later that Lower Falls and Bridalveil Falls are all but dried up. That’s the kind of information they should give you when you say you just have a couple of days and would like their recommendation for good hikes. But anyway, I digress…

So anyway, we get here yesterday and things are filling up fast so we beeline to the nearest campground that might have openings. After driving around a bit, we take one of the last two spots. It was a pretty nice location too, good flat ground, on the edge of the trees. All in all, we got pretty lucky with it. It was a little sad watching people drive by who arrived after us; I don’t know what they did if they couldn’t find a spot (backcountry permits get raffled off in early December for most of June/July). One of these unfortunate souls stopped Tom when we was coming back from the restroom (pit toilet, can’t expect much for $10/night) and asked if we knew of any openings or sites that might be big enough to accommodate an extra tent. He said if they didn’t find anything, to come back to ours and we’d see what we could do. And that is how we ended up hanging out with Philippe (he’s French) and Art (a native San Franciscan) who live in Berkley and work making clocks.

Now, it’s great that all of California visits this National Park in their own backyard and uses its trails and picnic areas and every conceivable parking space. Really, that’s great for them; it was created pretty explicitly for that purpose and served as a model for national and state parks to follow. It just sucks a bit for the rest of us that would like a little bit of space! Our campground was so loud at night we thought we were camping on the river in Sterling! It just gives the park a different kind of feel when it gets this much use from people who come here so frequently. Even the people though can’t take away from the scenery of El Cap and Half Dome. It really is unique how these sheer granite faces rise from the trees seemingly out of no where. Standing below El Capitan, you almost get the feeling like it’s the blob or a giant tidal wave that’s coming to engulf you. It definitely qualifies for an adjective like looming. Viewing Half Dome at the same time as El Cap gives you the impression that someone stuck a giant rectangular shaped cookie cutter down the middle of the valley and removed a block-sized piece from the middle. Not sure if the pictures will do them justice (they usually don’t, unless you are Ansel Adams) but hopefully you will get some idea for what I mean.

Today we had planned to take a bus to Glacier Point and hike back to Yosemite Valley along the Panorama Trail but we missed the early bus and the next one wasn’t going until 1:30 so we decided to do Vernal Falls instead. It was a pretty cool view, but for some reason I was just dragging today so we didn’t go as far as we had planned. We decided to use our extra time to head down to Mariposa Grove to see the giant sequoias here. They were big, and their bark was a very bright red, but I really thought they were going to be bigger (wider) since the guy at Redwoods had said as much.

Now we are heading back to the camp and I’m hoping that this typing will distract me from the carsickness that is getting worse and worse. Things aren’t real secure right now in the van so every corner means that the cooler is sliding back and forth. I thing Tom could go a little slower, but hey, I’m not driving so it’s mostly up to him how fast we go (until I spew). With that lovely little thought, I’ll leave you all until next time. Tomorrow we are heading out of Yosemite through the Meadows and driving through Nevada and Utah until we’re tired and it’s time to camp. Highway 6 through Nevada only has 3 towns…for the entire width of the state…so that should be fun. At least the road is straight!!!