Yosemite
National Park, California – July 2010
Thursday, July 8: This is the interior of the restaurant. I
like the architecture. The National Park Service tries hard to design
buildings that blend into the parks. I shot this at ISO 400, lens
wide open (f/3.5), no flash, hand held at 1/6 second! I don't know
how I held the camera as steady as I did, but it's not bad.
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Julie and I checked out of our cabins and loaded
our cars. By coincidence, she was also driving a Jetta, borrowed from
a relative in Southern California. She was heading back there to drop
off the car and visit more people, before flying back to her
hometown. Driving toward the southern exit, by which we'd entered the
park, we stopped at the Wawona Hotel to grab a park shuttle to the
Mariposa Grove. Yosemite has three groves of giant sequoias, with
Mariposa being the largest grove. It is very close to the southern
entrance of the park, but there is very limited parking there, and it
is highly recommended that people park at Wawona and ride the
shuttle.
We soon entered a land of big trees. Still recovering from the
14.2-mile hike to Half Dome and back, we elected to buy tickets for a
tram ride through the grove, rather than to hike through.
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This is the Fallen Monarch tree. I am used to
trees decaying within a few years after falling, but this tree has
been on the ground a very long time. Wikipedia has a photo
from about a century ago of a cavalry troop standing on this
tree.
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The tram ride continues.
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This is the Faithful Couple: two sequoias that
grew close together, with their trunks eventually merging into
one.
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This is the Clothespin Tree. The Mariposa Grove,
along with Yosemite Valley, were the first parts of the park that
were protected by the government. In the early decades of the
government's stewardship, efforts were made to prevent forest fires.
However, scientists later discovered that fires are essential to
allowing the sequoias to grow and reproduce, and so controlled fires
are now allowed. The sequoias are so big and sturdy that fire doesn't
usually destroy them, though a few trees have very serious scars as a
result. This tree has a hole burned completely through it, in the
shape of a clothespin.
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A closer view:
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This is the Mariposa Tree:
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Here is the Fallen Tunnel Tree. It fell over
during 1969.
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Loggers cut down some sequoias, but the giant
trees tend to shatter upon impact, as may be seen in the next
photograph. This led many loggers to focus on other trees.
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This is the Telescope Tree. Fire has burned a hole
into which one can enter and look up and see the sky.
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A fallen and broken tree:
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I don't think these close-growing trees have been
named. At least I didn't see a sign.
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More big trees beside a trail:
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Julie poses in front of one of the giant
sequoias:
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As you've seen, I've been using my stitching
software to piece together complete or near-complete shots of these
trees, though that has introduced some interesting perspective
distortion.
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Julie and I pose in a cut through the California
Tree. Fire had left a big hole, and in 1895 tour guides enlarged the
hole, allowing a stage coach to drive through:
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The Grizzly Giant, the
second largest tree in the grove, and the 25th largest living sequoia
(measured by volume):
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The tram ride over, Julie and I rode the shuttle
back to our cars at Wawona, and bid farewell. I drove back to Fresno,
arriving several hours before my flight. The Fresno airport cutely
incorporates a giant sequoia theme into its terminal:
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I rode a turpoprop from Fresno to San Francisco, and then rode a
redeye flight to Cleveland from around 11:00 p.m. (Pacific time) to
6:30 a.m. (Eastern time). From there, I flew back to New York.