Yosemite

Just going thru some photo albums and came across my pictures from Yosemite. The first few were taken in August, 1988, when my dad and I went on a 3 week trip to California. When we left Lake Tahoe, we drove on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, hugging the California/Nevada border. I kept seeing these spectacular cliffs off in the distance and I finally pulled over to take a picture. Imagine my surprise when we drove through them, as this is Tioga Pass, the eastern entrance to Yosemite.
We'd just entered Yosemite from Tioga Pass, and this is looking west. This area is called "Tuolumne Meadows". It took me quite awhile to learn how to pronounce "Tuolumne" (Too-ALL-um-nee).This is Half Dome, very popular with rock climbers. This was taken from the Glacier Point overlook, high above the valley. It was hard for me to choose just a few pictures because you really can't get a bad shot from this height. I felt like I was on top of the world up there! We drove to the top, we did not hike!

Looking down at Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point.

This is a good shot of the valley, where you can see how the glacier scoured it out.

The next pics were taken in April, 1992, when my parents came out to visit us. The snow was melting and the waterfalls in the park were amazing. The rock face on the left is El Capitan, and there's Half Dome in the distance on the right.

A serene early morning scene in the valley.

Brian and I went on a hell-hike to Mirror Lake, while my parents had a lovely time browsing in the museum. It was a hell-hike because I was deathly ill with bronchitus. Before we went on the hike, I had to go to the Yosemite Valley Health Clinic to be seen by a doctor because I was so sick with fever, earache (which ain't no picnic when you are in the mountains and constantly changing elevations) and bronchitus. Still, we went on the hike. At the time, California was about 6 years into a drought, and Mirror Lake had all but dried up. It was very anti-climatic, but I managed to get one good shot while there. Upper Yosemite Falls and a herd of mule deer in the meadow.

Unfortunately, Yosemite is in danger of being loved to death by the tourists. The trash is disgusting. Brian and I would veer off to pick up discarded pop cans and napkins. When my dad and I went in the summer, there was so much traffic in the Valley that it was hard to get from one place to another, and the river was choked with people on inner tubes and floats. There has been talk of having a yearly lottery to only allow a certain amount of visitors in each year, they'd have to leave their cars at the entrances of the park and take a shuttle to see the sites. It's a good idea. I would give anything to see Yosemite in it's natural, pristine state like John Muir did in the 1800's.