Sunday, January 3, 2010

Five Hundred Dollar a Night Pinecone.

It is amazing how dramatically the Merced River Valley changes as it gets downstream.

The cliffs aren't as steep so they can hold vegetation, but not many trees.

Parallel to the cliffs, waiting for the single lane bridge to let me passed, the shadows on the banks criss-crossed a runoff.

The sheer granite let you know you had entered the park.

The valley is known for its clear waters.

It did not take long to find out why Ansel Adams was so enamored by the landscape.

The weather above the cliffs changes so rapidly and dramatically, and the fog rolls inand out of the valley throughout the day.


Until the valley warms up a light layer of fog still persisted as I entered the valley.

And in the shadows, the fog hung on for a while.

I came and went through the valley so much and saw the same landmarks over and over, but because of the weather changes there was never a dull moment.



The cliffs scew the scale of everything in view.

Half Dome. Not sure what to say other than wow.

My intent was to visit Yosemite only, having not planned very much at all on this trip. This was the shot that I had been in love with, this is the image I had in my mind. Less green than I had imagined, but this is the viewpoint.

Because I have been sleeping in my car "camping" and I don't own a time piece of any kind I wake up late everyday. I cruised the valley and took the Mirror Lake trail because it was short.

The chartreuse of the smaller moss does not show up on a camera such as this, but the both mosses had the most brilliant greens.

Mirror Lake was..iced over in large part. But this boulder shows how it got its name.

Say hello to Half Dome again. You can see the outline of the dome in the clouds for either disturbance or coincidence.


The water being so clear lets the light pass through and reflect great colors from the sediment.

I took a wrong turn on the way back from the lake so it took me around and around and I came to an empty campground.

Good thing I'm great with maps. i found my way to a bus stop and damn. The winter is not the peak time of the park, but the shuttle was packed. I could not imagine being here in the summer, not even just the amount of people, but just dealing with the attitudes and driving of the visitors is an experience.

This is what a $500 a night pinecone display looks like. So I didn't really want to deal with the hassle of driving out of the park everyday to sleep, and I refuse to pay to camp, so I entered the hotel in the park. people were wearing bow ties and I assumed that the rooms might be $100 a night. Uh, no. So to turnouts without no parking signs I went.

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