Bittersweet Yosemite

Beth and I made our way from Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks on Monday morning to head into Yosemite National Park. For those of you who know much about Yosemite, you know that in all of America, no national park has quite the aura of wonder and beauty around it that Yosemite has. Yosemite is at the top of the list of national parks. It has been portrayed by Western America culture as a wonderous natural experience, a mythical place of beauty and natural wonders beyond descriptiopn - something perhaps close to Eden. Beth and I are both educated environmentalists and in our education we had heard of John Muir's words of description of the place, we had read about the battles for conservation that surround Yosemite, and we had seen Ansel Adams photos that strike awe in the heart. Needless to say, we were excited about encountering the grandeur and beauty of Yosemite.

Upon entering the park, we didn't catch any glimpses of any awe inspiring natural wonders but we still hoped. To make a long story full of dramatics short, Yosemite was everything and nothing that we expected. We visited Mariposa Grove, which is renowned for its Sequoias, only to find the trees set apart like museum objects, very sterile in comparison to our hike in Kings Canyon that brought us into intimate contact with such trees. Yet, we were blown away by the awesomeness of Yosemite Valley and nature's ability to create so many amazing geological wonders in one small space. Still, everywhere we went we were amazed at the number of tourists. They are nearly everywhere in Yosemite. On a busy day in the summer the valley can be visited by 25,000 tourists!! Shuttle buses and trams move tourists from one sight to the next. While the hybrid buses cut down on pollution, the guided tram tours make Yosemite out to be Disney World for Nature. People are allowed to be removed from the natural world that they have traveled to see. Where the tourists are the bears are also. We spent one night in the valley camping and had an extremely persistent bear bother the campground all night. When there weren't people in out campground yelling at the bear, there were people in adjacent campgrounds yelling at other bears!! How wild and urban all at the same time!

Even with all the tourists, we were able to get connected to nature. We spent a day and a half hiking away from most tourists and traveled to Hetch Hetchy Dam and Reservior to see one of the more remote attractions at Yosemite. The northern part of the park, Tuolumne Meadows, took our breath away and both Beth and I agreed that hiking in this beautiful area would be something we do in the future.

Overall, Yosemite was close to everything we hoped for and at the same time was everything we despise. Unsupassed natural beauty mixed with touristy, commercialism and luxury was basically what we got. The pictures below hopefully help to give you a sense of the experience!!

Where are we, Washington D.C. or Yosemite? You can hardly tell!! This was the bus ride from Mariposa Grove in Yosemite to the parking lot! We were crammed into a hybrid bus full of tourists from all over the world.

This is our first glimpse of Yosemite Valley. El Capitan is the large rock structure on the left and back on the horizon is Half Doom, beckoning to be hiked!!

We saw a gorgeous sunset the first night in the park. After the mad house that was Mariposa Grove, it was really refreshing to see something this beautiful as we drove to our campsite!!

Here is an awesome picture of Half Dome from the Valley Floor. No matter what view you have of the Dome, it is always awesome! After our big hike up Half Dome we treated ourselves to the best pizza I have ever tasted!! One thing that's nice about the touristy side of Yosemite is that the food, although expensive, was absolutely amazing!! Here are a bunch of tourists waiting in line for food or already eatting thier amazing pizzas!!

Here is a nice black and white of Yosemite Falls. The Falls are actually a three part falls that make up one of the biggest waterfalls in the world!!

Here is Hetch Hetchy. For those who don't know, Hetch Hetchy is a pretty big deal in the world of conservation. Back at the beginning of the last century, when Yosemite was already a National Park, the American Government decided that they would go back on thier word to conserve natural lands in National Parks and decided to dam the Tuolumne River (which is in Yosemite) so to provide San Francisco with a reliable water supply. The Hetch Hetchy Valley was flooded. This was a big hit for conservationists like John Muir who felt that natural lands protected by the National Park System should be left natural. The damming of Hetch Hetchy helped to spur on the modern environmental movement!! (Sorry if this is a bit of a biased historical account of the politics of Hetch Hetchy - I definately have my opinion!)

Hetch Hetchy Reservoir! It seemed to me that the Hetch Hetchy Valley would look much like the Yosemite Valley if it were not filled with water!!
The O'Shaughnessy Dam at Hetch Hetchy! Damn those dams!!

A beautiful shot of Half Dome from the Tuolumne region of the park. This area of the park was very High Sierraesque. It was beautiful and definately an area that deserved more time then we gave it!!