The High Sierra in Late Spring

Yesterday my wife and I got back from a whirlwind trip over Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park.  We left Sunday at noon from Visalia, taking the Wawona Road just to the beginning of iconic Yosemite Valley.  From there, instead of contesting with the Memorial Day Weekend throngs, we peeled off to the north and enjoyed the relative solitude and truly wild Sierra experience of Tioga Road.  With some stops for views, short hikes and lunch we pulled into the town of Lee Vining at the eastern base of the pass around 6:00 P.M.

I do so love the mountains.  The crystalline sky is so deep and richly blue it's almost purple.  Rushing torrents of melt water leap over cliff faces, race down boulder-strewn creek beds or meander through awakening meadows, greening now at 7,000 feet while those at 9,000 are still tawny.  Lakes such as Tenaya are so clear you can see bottom.   Snow lingers in the high scarps where pikas are emerging from their dens, ever watchful for hungry raptors circling above.  Even the firs are hunched and gnarled from their interminable struggle with wind and chill at Tioga Pass's 9945 foot summit.

In the middle elevations a riot of ferns and vines spring into ephemeral verdancy, where a keen and patient eye may spot a bear gorging on berries.  As the season warms both flora and fauna will creep upward.  Higher on the craggy slopes of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne a decent pair of binoculars may bring some mountain goats into focus.  Rarely you might spy a mountain lion crouched furtively in the granite or edging ever closer to its intended prey.

To me there is something primally compelling about these untamed expanses.  You can sense it in the people you meet who have come from all over the world to revel in creation as when it first existed.  There was the Indian family with laughing children scaling a boulder at an overlook, or the smiling young Japanese couple who took our picture at Tuolumne Meadow, or the animated group of six travelers from France recounting their adventures of the day before over breakfast at a little place in Lee Vining.      

If its national parks are not "America's Best Idea," as Ken Burns has said, they are certainly one of them.  I definitely feel spiritually refreshed amid such wonder, and grateful these places of peace have been set aside for preservation, not only so their natural inhabitants can live according to their natures, but that we humans may also reclaim some of our own. 
 

  

Most Beautiful Place in the World

Everyone has their own preference for natural beauty. Some like the stark desert while others love seascapes. I'm partial to mountain scenery. One of the bonuses of moving to Central California ten years ago is proximity to the Sierra Nevada. My wife and I will be spending the weekend in what is to me the most beautiful spot on Earth, Yosemite.

El Capitan, Glacier Point, Yosemite Falls, Half Dome. All these world famous landmarks are all in view at the same time. Late spring should see Yosemite, Bridal Veil, Nevada and all the other waterfalls at peak volume. The world's largest single exposed block of granite, El Capitan, stands sentinel over the entrance to John Muir's "heavenly valley." Fantastic glacially-scoured miles-long walls of stone hang thousands of feet over your head on all sides with a picture-perfect river and flat valley floor of meadow and forest in your foreground. The flora, the wildlife, the mountains, the roar of cascading water and the clouds of mist make this an unforgettable and awesome spectacle.

The national parks, sometimes called "America's best idea," are a treasure trove of gems. And Yosemite is my favorite of them all. If you would like to help preserve America's wonderlands and historic heritage, I'd like to recommend a membership in the National Parks Conservation Association for your consideration. You can go to their website here.