Yosemite Park Site seeing June 17, 2012

Austin got more and more comfortable driving a stick (and so did I)

After yesterday’s tiring hike we decided to enjoy a more leisurely day seeing the sites.  Austin drove most of the day and really started to get a feel for the clutch.  The first stop was Glacier Point, high above the south side of the valley.  From that vantage, there are magnificent views of Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, and peaks in the northern distance.  

Geologic map of Yosemite Valley.

 An exhibit explains the geology of the area, which began with batholithic intrustions about 100 million years ago, followed by episodic glaciation that carved and shaped the valley until the last 20,000 years or so.  The Sierras are still rising about a foot every 1,000 years.

 Next we stopped at the Wawona tunnel overlook, which offers a vantage of the valley from some 1,000 feet lower. 

Wawona tunnel

 Here Yosemite Falls is front and center, with nary a reminder of the pain it laid down the day before.  At the bottom of the valley we veered right and did a short hike to the base of Bridal Veil Falls, which is only of the many popular sites along the way.  Hundreds of visitors lined the trail, some enjoying snacks, some wading in the creek, and some scampering up the rocks to get closer to the falls.  

Slice of an old tree.

The rest of the afternoon we explored the village, stopping in at the Ansel Adams gallery to see the work of the master first hand. Next we explored the museum, admiring the basketry of the local Indians. Up until the 1940s, there was an Indian show to entertain the visitors during the summer. It was discontinued because of the cost and the growing sense that it was inauthentic.   There were a number of interesting things to see including a slice of a tree that is well over 1,000 years old and a cemetery with dozens of graves from infants to old men.

Grave in the Yosemite cemetery.

 

We wrapped up our afternoon in the village by watching a video “The Spirit of Yosemite”, which covered the natural history and park development process spurred by John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt.  

 We made our way to the Mariposa Grove in the southwest corner of the Park.  Here an easy trail winds through a grove of sequoias that are up to 2,000 years old.  In the last few decades, the NPS has begun to manage the understory with fire, which is a big change for the conservation community.  The largest tree in the grove is called the Grizzly Giant.  One of its lower branches is

 

to the Wawona campground and set up camp as the light faded.  We cooked up a batch of one-pot pasta with marinara sauce on our new MSR stove and it turned out great.  Our first night sleeping in the tent was a bit of an adjustment.  It had been a while since either of us had slept on hard ground and both of us rolled half the night.  Austin was delighted when I rose at 6am because it gave him the chance to sleep a couple of hours on my slightly more cushy pad.