California Raw, Day 5

Yosemite.

As I looked out over a charred valley and then turned my head to examine a barren hill that had once been dense forest, I vaguely recalled hearing about a fire in Yosemite a few years ago. “Oh, yeah. . .” Mom and I didn’t bother driving that part of the park.

Also due to the freakishly cold weather (global warming?), more than half of Yosemite is still closed and covered in snow. So we didn’t get to see a lot of Yosemite. But we also had a very rewarding day:

For starters, we say a grizzly cub bounding through the forest. --Not sure if he was playing or chasing something. Unfortunately there wasn’t any place to pull off the road. (There are really not a lot of places to pull off in that park unfortunately.) And I got a couple great deer pictures.

Yosemite is a more subtle beauty that the nonstop “Wow” that is Yellowstone or Zion. But once we got into the park a way, its beauty really captivated us. I would describe it as very lush. Tolkien-ish elves could have ambushed us, shouting, “What are you doing in our forest!”

I wouldn’t mind spending several days or a week hiking and biking on the trails, which is the best way to see Yosemite apparently. But the lush factor could have something to do with the fact that we were immersed in rain, then sleet, then hail, then snow off and on throughout the day. Water has a way of doing that.

Pictures 53 and 54 were actually taken in a downpour of sleet. I precariously balanced my umbrella overhead by pressing it against the camera with my cheek, while trying to look through the viewfinder, and thus keeping my hands free for working the tripod head and camera settings. And despite the umbrella, nearly $4k of camera equipment was covered with more water that it probably should have been.

But I can’t be bothered to worry about that (unless I have to send something into Nikon for repair again). Life was meant to be lived and cameras were meant for taking pictures!

Sixteen new pictures.