Postcard from Yosemite Valley

The Journey Continues:

I should explain what journey means here. This was indeed a journey all over the western US to see many places for the first time (Yosemite being the exception here). In truth, it was a journey where I transitioned from my old life as a married man living in Central Washington…to a new life as a single man living someplace new in Arizona. And this trip was the long, slow road to that new life.

As I mentioned last time, as I drove down the Big Oak Flat Road into Yosemite Valley, I discovered it was the height of the Autumn season in that beautiful valley. The lower the elevation, the more color appeared. And while Yosemite Valley (at 4,000 ft.) has many evergreen trees, it also has a great many deciduous trees that turn all different colors this time of year.

The picture above is just one example of the beautiful Autumn colors here. You can see more on my Flickr Yosemite album by clicking on this link. This album shows Yosemite photos from Spring, Summer and Autumn. I bet you will be able to guess which are which (hint: if you see lots of water, its Spring).

I didn’t think a great deal about my life or the meaning of it, or my new life ahead. All I did was think about photography and how to capture all the beauty this valley has to offer. I shot from sunrise to sunset, loving every minute of it. Luckily, I was very familiar with all valley locations and was able to find some of the best locations for Fall color.

The most exciting thing that happened on the second day was crossing a meadow, heading for a select spot on the Merced River. There, I ran into a very large brown bear foraging for food. He saw me and began loping off in a different direction. These Yosemite bears are not very aggressive unless they are very hungry and smell food on your person.

A friend of mine tells the story of how he was once fishing up in the high country and had caught several fish. He was hiking along a trail across a meadow and spotted a large bear heading to intercept him. He knew what the bear wanted, so he dropped his fishing creole and took off in a different direction. True to form, the bear went right for the fish and had a snack. Fortunately, I had no food with me in that meadow by the river.

The other thing I remember about this time was seeing no Yosemite Falls. I told you last time that there was no water in Yosemite Creek, so this was not a surprise. But it was the first time ever in my life to see no Yosemite Falls. Very strange.

It was a great two days in Yosemite Valley and I took many more photos than you see in my Flickr album. Now that I have a big 27” iMac Retina computer, I look forward to processing and showing you more beautiful photos of Yosemite in Autumn.

But after two days camping out in the valley, it was time to head west to visit friends for a couple of days and sleep in a real bed. PS: just in case you wondered about hygiene, I was able to shower every day at Camp Curry.

Stay Tuned…

(To see a larger version of this image, just click on it)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com…or visit my Flickr Page

Postcard from Yosemite’s High Country

The Journey Continues:

After leaving the beautiful Autumn-colored Inyo National Forest, I climbed higher and higher on Highway 120… and into the high country of Yosemite.  I entered at the Tioga Pass Entrance at the east end of the park. I was very nervous when I started this journey that this road would be closed by the time I got here. Fortunately, the first snow had not fallen.

When the first snowflakes hit the road, the Park Service shuts it down completely. At an elevation of 7,000 to 10,000 feet, you just know the high country gets buried in the snow. Depending on the quantity of snow, the road doesn’t usually open again until May or June. That is why I breathed a little easier when I got here…there was not a cloud in the sky.

The high country is mostly granite mountains and domes with hundreds of lakes doting the landscape. I spent many of my summers up here as a youth…and there are no better mountains to explore in the whole wide world. In a way, this part of my journey was a pilgrimage to my past.

As much as I would have liked to stop and hike to some of the nearby lakes, there was no time to do so. I would have to be satisfied with Tenaya Lake along the highway. But I am ahead of myself.

The first stop along the highway was Tuolumne Meadows… a large sub-alpine meadows at about 8,700 feet. Through it flows the Tuolumne River. It is surrounded by the Cathedral Range and some gentle granite domes.

The photo here is of Lembert Dome. You can see a small part of the meadows leading up to the dome. Although they are green in spring and summer, they were completely brown at this late date. That is part of the reason that this photo is in black and white. It just works better.

Notice the trees in the background. There is no autumn color at this elevation. These are evergreen trees that never lose there leaves (or needles), as compared to the deciduous trees down in the lower elevations.

I had thought I might camp up at TM (that is what us seasoned veterans call it) but all campgrounds were closed for the season. So onward and westward!

A little further down Highway 120, you run into beautiful Tenaya Lake. It is a large lake, at 8,100 feet, fed by several streams and rivers, including Tenaya Creek. At the far end of the lake, Tenaya Creek continues its journey downward through Tenaya Canyon and eventually into famous Mirror Lake in Yosemite Valley. Eventually it merges with the Merced River.

Continuing west, I came to the side road that leads to White Wolf, the very campground where I spent many happy summers with my family. While they fished, I took off on trails to some wonderful places in the high country…much to consternation of my parents. I sometimes forgot to mention that I was going hiking. I see a trail in the mountains and I want to know where it goes. That feeling persists to this day.

When I got to the White Wolf gate, it too was shut down for the winter. That was sad as I wanted to see it one more time and relive a few memories. Just too late for this party.

Back on 120, I continued the journey west. I passed over Yosemite Creek, which was a dry as bone. That meant there was no water flowing over Yosemite Falls. In my whole life I never saw those falls without water. I would tomorrow.

I continued on till I met up with the Big Oak Flat Road…which takes you out of the high country and down into Yosemite Valley. As I descended, I started running into trees with autumn colors. The lower I went, the more color I saw. It suddenly hit me…I had come into full blown Autumn in Yosemite Valley. WOW! Talk about luck. Me and my camera were going to be busy!

PS: The first snow in the high country fell three days after my visit and the Tioga Road was closed. Another lucky break.

To be continued…

(To see a larger version of this image, just click on it)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com…or visit my Flickr Page

Postcard from Mono Lake

The journey continues…

The Old Tioga Pass Road in the 1950’s was, at most, one lane wide. But one day, many summers ago when I was maybe 9 or 10, my father, mother and little brother climbed into our family Buick at our campsite in Yosemite’s High Country and headed east on that old road…destination Mono Lake.

In those day, one drove that road extremely carefully. When approaching a blind curve, and there were plenty of them, you honked your horn to warn possible oncoming cars that you were there. If you were going uphill and met another car coming down, you pulled as far to the right as you could. Downhill cars had the right of way. When you pulled off the road to make way, you were way off the road…so one had to be doubly careful.

It was always an interesting ride on that old road. We actually did that road a few times, but only once to the far off destination of Mono Lake. To get there you leave Yosemite at the Tioga Ranger Station, elevation 9,700 ft. Then you drop down to Mono Lake, elevation 6,379 ft.…in 14.5 miles.

As you can imagine, it was a steep drop on that old road. Even today, it is a steep road. But back in the 1950’s, one had to worry about brake overheating going down, and engine overheating going up. Every time I think about that drive, I have nothing but admiration for my father and his accomplishments of driving the Old Tioga Pass Road.

By the way, if you are ever hiking up in the Yosemite High Country, you will probably run into sections of the old road. A few years ago, I ran into one piece of the road near Tenaya  Lake…it was smaller than I remembered.

The Mono Lake I saw that day in the 1950’s is vastly different than the one I saw this day. Back then, the elevation of the lake was 6,417 feet. Today, the elevation is 6,379 feet, a difference of 38 feet. That doesn’t sound like much, but it made a huge difference in the way the lake appears.

The tufa's you see in this photo were underwater back in the ‘50’s. I won’t go into the process of how they form, but they are made up the minerals found in the lake (mostly limestone). Mono Lake is an alkaline lake…no fish. The only inhabitants of the lake are the tiny brine shrimp, about 4-6 trillion of them. Its not human food, but the migratory birds who stop there on their journey north and south, just love them. 

In 1941, the city of Los Angeles decided to divert the water in Owens Creek for their own use. The remaining creeks that fed the lake were not enough to keep it at its old elevation. So, gradually the lake dropped, exposing the tufa’s.

In 1994, the State of California stopped LA from its water diversions, after an in-depth study showed the devastating effects it was having on the ecology of the entire area. Since then, the lake has been slowly rising again. Eventually, the tufa’s will be back underwater.

I visited Mono Lake early in the morning, before sunrise to catch the great light that sunrise offers. Sadly, it was not a great sunrise and there were no clouds, so most of my photos of that day were not all that good.  But I must say, I found it all quite interesting and definitely worth the visit.

When you walk down the path from the parking lot to the Tufa’s, there are markers along the way showing how high the lake was in various years. Then you really see first hand how far the lake dropped.

After leaving Mono Lake, I spent the rest of the day photographing the glorious Autumn colors of the the Inyo National Forest, about halfway up the road to Yosemite.

Then I spent another uncomfortable night in my tent in the National Forest Campground.

When I set out on this journey, I mentioned on day one that this was a journey of discovery about the West and about myself and my new life as a single man. Well, here is one of the things I discovered:

I may be too old to be camping out. I cannot get from a horizontal position, such as being in a sleeping bag, to a vertical position as easily as I used to. In fact it is damn hard. An being almost a senior citizen, I cannot stay in a sleeping bag all night without having to get up at least once. I will leave it at that, other than to say it was damned difficult and I almost collapsed the tent a couple of times.

Be that as it may, I do not regret one minute of my time on this journey. The next day, my plan was to head up into Yosemite’s high country and visit some of my most favorite spots on the planet.

Stay tuned for more…

Postcard from Inyo National Forest

The Journey Continues:

After my morning in Lassen, I arrived in Reno in the late afternoon. I had booked a hotel on the Internet, using one of those discount travel Web sites. It was only going to be a one-night stopover before I started camping further south in the Sierras. My last regular bed for a few days.

Well, the Internet gods were smiling on me that day. Instead of an ordinary room in a swanky casino/resort, I had a suite of rooms high up near the top floor, looking out at Reno and the Sierra mountains. Holy Cow! This was too good to pass up. So I immediately booked the place for a second night. The tent and sleeping bag can wait!

I noodled around Reno for a day and a half, taking in the sites and restaurants. I even bought a new tripod for one of my cameras. Although I used to live only a couple hours away, I spent very little time here so it was almost like exploring a new city. Those two days and nights were just what the doctor ordered. As I don’t gamble, two days and nights were just fine.

After the last night, I headed out early, this time heading south of Highway 395 and back into California. My destination was Highway 120, aka: the Tioga Pass Road. This is the road that goes high into the Sierras and is the back entrance to Yosemite.

But Yosemite was not my destination on this day. I had other things to see and do before I headed into the high country.

When driving south on 395 from Reno, you pass through Nevada’s Capitol, Carson City. I think I was married there once. Eventually you come back into California at Topaz Lake, then continue south through some very small communities, the largest being Bridgeport. On and on and on, along the back side of the Sierras, eventually passing the west shore of Mono Lake, then Lee Vining and Highway 120.

It was time to find a campsite for night, which I did at one of the campgrounds in Inyo National Forest. I was only partway up 120, but high enough to enjoy the Autumn colors in full glory. It was absolutely stunning! After setting up camp, I had time to wander through part of the forest and enjoy.

The tree were a blaze of yellow. I ran into a few people who travelled long distances to take in these colors. Can’t blame them.  This photo was taken along Lee Vining Creek near my campsite. The leaves were not arranged by me…it is just the way I found them.

As the sun sets in the west and I was on the east side of the Sierras, it got dark early. I made my first dinner of the trip on the camp stove and read my book using light from my two lanterns. Eventually I headed into my tent and into the sleeping bag on top of the air mattress. It wasn’t that cold, so I was warm enough. Snug as a bug in a rug.

I then proceeded to have one of the worst nights of my adult life. More to come.