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The Valley of Light

Yosemite Valley in all its glory

Day 26

          About ten million years ago there was an uprising.

          No….. not a revolt. We weren’t around back then.

          But the Geology Family was, and they were hard at work.

          They pushed the Sierra Nevada mountains up at a crazy angle which made all the streams and rivers flow faster and faster. These erosion causing factors made room for another Family to move in, they were the Canyons Family, and they got along very nicely with the Geology Family. All was good for about five million years.

          Until…… (cue dramatic music by John Williams)

          The Glacier Gang moved in.

          The Glacier Gang were sweet-talked to expand their activities by their allies, the Ice Agers.

           The scouring of the area that Yosemite Valley is located in had begun with a vengeance. No stone was left unturned in their drive to reshape everything in their path. In fact, no stone or three-thousand-foot granite monolith was safe from the Glacier Gang. They wielded their forces and scooped out all the dirt and rocks from the Valley like a kid eating pudding with a spoon.

          The Glacier Gang are our friends    😊

          Without them, what we see and experience in Yosemite National Park would still be buried right up to the top of Bridal Veil Falls. That is a lot of scooping as the top of the Falls sits a little over 600 feet above the Valley floor.

          So, as you can see, the Glacier Gang really are our friends!

          Our visit to Yosemite National Park was accompanied by our other good friend, Great Weather. Luckily for us, she seems to be following us wherever we go.

          I think she comes along just for Snack Time.

Miss Great Weather working hard

          Which we had while peering up at Bridal Veil Falls.

Bridal Veil Falls complete with the plumed “tail” of her veil

          We did not need any timestamp reservations at Yosemite as our trip commenced before May 20th. After that date, and during the peak visiting season, you will need to procure a timed reservation to enter.        More and more National Parks are being forced to initiate this procedure as the overcrowding of these Parks has reached epidemic proportions, which in a way, is a good thing. It’s no use having a park unless folks go to it, but I guess that everything has its limits, and that includes National Parks and their capacities.

Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls

          We are staying about an hour outside the Park at the Mariposa County Fairgrounds located appropriately in the little town of Mariposa. It turns out that Mariposa means Butterfly in Spanish and we just missed the annual Butterfly Festival at the fairgrounds that concluded the day that we arrived. I’m not sure what a Butterfly Festival is as these little guys kind of have their own life cycles, but I wonder if the attendees bring their butterfly pets along? Let them fly around on tiny thread-like leases like dogs at a dog show?

          I guess I should find out and report back to you.

          We entered the Park along with a few others and while we were there we never experienced the throng-like atmosphere that prompted the need for timed entries. Yosemite was one of the first Parks to offer, (then insist) on having its own mini transit system. Even though the Park covers almost twelve-hundred square miles, the vast amount of visitors, (95%)  travel in the seven square miles of the Valley floor. From here you can see most of what Yosemite is famous for. El Capitan, Bridal Veil Falls, Half Dome, and Yosemite Falls (both Upper and Lower) are visible and accessible from the various loop roads that wind around the Campgrounds, Lodges, Hotel, and vantage points here.

The interior of the Ahwahnee Hotel circa 1926
Dining Room
What you get when you stay here!

          We have Abraham Lincoln to thank for the initial protection of Yosemite Valley and that was way back in 1864. It took another twenty-six years for it to gain further stature when John Muir convinced Teddy Roosevelt to protect it even further. It finally entered our infant precursor of the National Park Service in 1890 as a stand-alone National Park and was one of major reasons for establishing the National Park Service in 1916.

          It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site for all the right reasons.

The Merced River lazily winding its way across the nearly horizontal Valley floor until it exits the Park and plummets 2000′ in just a few miles!

          As I’ve alluded to before, timing is everything when visiting these places. It affects your experience in many ways. Getting here early was great as most people like to sleep in and start there days a little later, which is fine if you are watching TV, but not good if you are planning on entering one of the most visited places on the planet.

          So, early is good.

El Capitan in the morning light

          Except, for lighting up a deep, high-walled, valley with that great illuminator of photographic scenes, Miss Sunshine. She needs to work her way across the sky and then she  is very specific about what, and when, she sheds her radiance upon. When we arrived, Bridal Veil Falls was deep in the shadows and El Capitan was bathed in glorious brilliance. Half Dome never really showed its face until much later in the day, probably late afternoon and by then we were on our way back to Butterfly Town. But because there were no crowds we were able to make numerous round trips around the loops over the span of our visit and capture some nicely lit scenes that may have otherwise been only visible to us in the shadows. If you have ever seen the work of Ansel Adams and his camera, you know what I am talking about. Ansel was the one who brought the Sierra Nevada and particularly Yosemite into the family rooms of America with his stunning black and white photos of this region. He really knew how to use the available light to his advantage. Fittingly, one the Wilderness Areas that surround Yosemite is named for him.

While we were there, Paula spied a group of crazy people scaling the vertical wall of El Capitan. It takes so long to do this that you need to spend the night (or two) suspended above the valley floor in a special platform-tent or just a sleeping bag. I told you they were crazy!

That is them,… wait for it….
I told you!

          If you have never been here please do not let my description of over-crowding stop you. It is well worth the visit as is any of the other great National Parks in our system.

           Just plan accordingly and all will be fine!     

          Lastly, I may I suggest that you  put the Glacier Gang on your Christmas Card list…. We have a lot to thank them for!

Upper Falls up close
El Cap and the Eastern Rim

3 replies on “The Valley of Light”

God helped create all that beauty – imagine if he had more than 7 days!!

BTW – i read your post and heard Richard Attenborough’s voice!

Thank you again Don !!

These pictures are NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC quality! Keep up the great work, Don.

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