Day: June 28, 2018

No photos (and hopefully none forthcoming).

Wildfires are starting to appear on the maps and I will be keeping a close eye on them. There is one right now in the Ansel Adams Wilderness, on the opposite side of Yosemite from where I am. There is also the Pawnee Fire up near Ukiah CA, where I have an Airbnb reservation in about two weeks (although right now it isn’t very close to town). It started only a few days ago and is already over 13,000 acres. It is being shown on the news and the Weather Channel because it has grown so quickly and has already destroyed numerous structures.

I see CalFire, Forest Service and Park Service fire trucks everywhere (not firetrucks like you would see in your home town but pickup or utility trucks owned by those agencies), and when I have been driving on the three scenic routes just north of where I am staying I often see Rangers at overlooks, from which you can see across wide areas, scanning the landscape with binoculars.

I will be closer to the coast after I leave here, except when I go to northeastern California to visit Lassen Volcanic National Park although, as the people who live near the coast near Montecito CA will tell you, that doesn’t guarantee you are immune from the fire danger.

And with the upcoming July 4 holiday looming there are signs everywhere advising that fireworks are not legal and should not be used EVER.

No photos (yet!)

I have LOTS more El Capitan and Half Dome pictures to share but my internet connection this week is very slow and it is taking forever to upload pictures to the blog (even in the wee hours of the morning local time).  I’m going back to bed as I have another very busy day today.  I will post the additional pictures Friday morning.

Here are two more photos of Bridal Veil Fall.  It is in the Cathedral Mountains and is the first attraction you get to when you enter the Park from the west.  It has a vertical drop of 620 feet.

Many of the attractions, and the two big hotels, at Yosemite National Park are located in the dead-end Yosemite Valley.  I didn’t venture into the Valley when I arrived in the area on Saturday because of signs warning of up to 3 hour delays driving in and out (it was the 3rd Saturday of June, after all, and I had already sat in line for an hour and a half just to get in the main entry gate).  In addition to the three popular attractions I have discussed earlier (El Capitan, Half Dome and Bridal Veil Fall) another big hit with tourists are these two Falls, located deep in the Valley.  Upper Yosemite Fall is at 5,404 feet elevation and has a vertical drop of 1,430 feet – the largest in the Park.  Lower Yosemite Fall (which you can see in the lower left hand corner of several of these photos) has a vertical drop of 320 feet.  There are what are called the Middle Cascades between them which drop 675 feet for a combined 2,425 foot drop.

Here are photos taken at various times on Monday and Wednesday:

These were taken Wednesday afternoon at around 145 when the sun was fully hitting the face of the mountain (Yosemite Point, 6,936 feet elevation).

 

There are lots of other things to see in Yosemite besides the 3 or 4 most popular sites.  Here are a variety of pictures taken at various times and places throughout the Park during the three days I have been there so far (and I plan to go back on Friday).  I’ve tried to pick the best of the 425 pictures I have taken with my smartphone camera.  We’ll deal with the 322 I’ve taken with the digital camera later!

The waterfalls seen in the next two photos are Nevada on the top (at 5,907 feet elevation with a 594 foot drop) and Vernal (at 5,044 feet elevation with a 317 foot drop) below it.  The other day I talked about mountain-climbing fatalities at El Capitan and Half Dome.  Well, these waterfalls are not without their victims as many people get swept to their death by getting too close or not taking proper precautions.