Things Consumed

 
My relationship with Yosemite. I'm back at home and settled in, but my brain is still full of images from Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park. Not necessarily 'Ansel Adams' quality images, but fondly remembered images from past trips. It's fun to go to such a grand and beautiful place in the 'off season' and have it feel intimate. Intimate enough that I notice that particular trees have grown.

I've been going to Yosemite periodically since I was in kindergarten, when it was my first camping trip with my school, without my parents. But it's more recent trips that have stuck in my mind.

There's a book quote that describes part of what I'm feeling... Oh, let's see if I can find the journal that quotes it. [search] Here it is:

I remember that month of January in Tokyo; or rather I remember the images that I filmed of the month of January in Tokyo. They have substituted themselves for my memory. They are my memory. I wonder how people remember things who don't film, don't photograph, don't tape. How has mankind managed to remember?

-Chris Maker, Sans Soleil, as quoted in Ruth Ozeki's My Year of Meats

While I vividly remember portions of every trip I've taken to Yosemite, extremely specific details that I have photographed remain foremost in my mind. I remember the way the valley looked under the full moon with snow covering the ground both in a fuzzy romantic way, and in a precise, long-exposure on color film way. When I visit now, those memories overlap.

The tree I call "our split tree," which is one of thousands with two trunks, graced a homemade Xmas card several years back, and we visited it again during this trip. We know what it looks like in the depths of winter and the warmth of spring.

There is a meadow I call "our meadow" because we've stomped through deep snow there, watched the sun setting in fall, and watched the sun rise in spring. I have photographed a little island of deciduous trees there in three seasons. Each season it's a little different, but always lovely. (Perhaps I'm a little possessive: the always-snowy peak in the background I nicknamed 'Mt. Starlene.')

And on a hike to Mirror Lake, which I've visited on few occasions, there is a rock that I photographed S on during our first visit there together. The cedar behind it is at least 6 or 7 feet taller than when I captured that image, and we had one of those silly 'my, how you've grown' conversations that people have with child-relatives.

There is something lovely about the familiarity of it. It helps me understand why people repeat themselves by visiting the same places year after year, when I generally prefer to explore some place new. I am beginning to understand the charm of familiarity.

*

Yosemite Valley isn't my favorite part of the park: that honor goes to Hetch Hetchy, off in the northwest and accessible by a separate road than the Valley. Once called the valley's twin, it is occupied by a dam that supplies my hometown with water and power, inappropriately since it is a National Park. I also love Tuolumne Meadows, though I've only once visited specifically to stay there, last fall in the peaceful 'off season,' during which the camp-city is largely unoccupied. I usually TM as the start or ending point of a backpacking trip. There is also a lake, Boothe Lake, along the Rafferty Creek route from TM to the Valley, which manifested as the most lovely lake I have ever seen during a backpacking trip there. The things many of these other locations offer is relative solitude.

The Valley is heavily developed, crowded, and usually full of people whose idea of a vacation doesn't require the park's spectacular surroundings, but rather swimming pools, card playing, camp fires, and shopping. Yet, it is still an absolutely spectacular natural setting, and I enjoy it whenever I can avoid the crowds.

*

The development of the valley does serve many purposes. It keeps the tourists from trampling the backcountry and hurting themselves, for example. :-) Seriously, it is a good place for people unaccustomed to wilderness to see a lovely natural spot, and for school groups to camp. The shuttle buses have hauled me and my gear from trailhead to car and back again for backpacking trips. The dining facilities have kept me fed during winter vacations when eating 'al fresco' was uncomfortable: at least one meal, at the mildly fancy lodge restaurant, was memorable for its quality. And there are ranger programs and displays which are quite educational.

On this trip, I saw the best interpretive performance I've yet experienced in the National Parks: Buffalo Soldier in Yosemite, a performance by Ranger Shelton Johnson about the history of African-American soldiers in two of California's national parks. He portrayed Elizy Bowman, a Ninth Cavalry soldier and war veteran, and was incredibly engaging. If all interpretive performances were this good, theatergoers would be crowding the schoolkids and tourists out of the parks! You really must see Ranger Johnson's show, if you have a chance. (See Ranger Discovers History in Shadow of Yosemite (theolympian.com, 02/02/03); a short overview article A History Remembered (nps.gov); and Mr. Johnson's excellent site for ongoing research on the lives of the soldiers, Shadow Soldiers in the Range of Light (shadowsoldier.wilderness.net))

There was also a great art exhibit at the Yosemite Museum. The Museum has some great anthropology exhibits, including some fabulous baskets made by recent Native American inhabitants of the area. There is a rotating exhibit in the rear room, and it is currently filled by winners of a contest organized by Yosemite Renaissance (yosemiterenaissance.org), a group that promotes diverse artistic interpretations of the park. The range of work was really impressive! 'Great stuff. So, if you're in the area, go see that, too.

*

We walked or hiked daily. Snow obscured portions of the high trail to Vernal Falls; snow closed the high trail to Nevada Falls, though the "winter route" trail was still accessible, and so we used it. I hadn't realized that the high trail sometimes fills with snow, since it's sheltered from the sun and enclosed by stone railings in portions. The more we could see of it, packed with snow above sheer cliffs, the more we understood why it was closed.

The falls were full and lovely. Of course.

*

Food? Oh, yes, food. We didn't have any really memorable meals at the park's concessions this time. A breakfast from the Yosemite Lodge's food court, with 'cheesy scrambled eggs' and fried potatoes, was probably my best experience this trip, and it didn't entirely agree with me. [Amusing aside: the food station attendant asked if I was Irish (no), then whether I was European (no). I assured him that I was born in San Francisco. But he said I sounded... like I'm not from here. I said that I am often accused, or asked, if I'm foreign. It hasn't happened in MONTHS, though! Lately, I've just been asked if I'm a schoolteacher, purportedly because I articulate all of my words so clearly. :-) ] I had a Gardenburger there during another meal, which was (thankfully) cooked on a separate grill from the meat dishes; it was okay, though a little dry, and the fries that came with it were fine. S was generally dissatisfied with his meals, though the blueberry pancakes at the Lodge food court were "fine." I had a decent pasta salad at the Curry Pavillion buffet, and two okay soft tacos. (I was afraid of the 'Spanish Rice,' which looked burned. The refried beans, purported to be vegetarian, were fine.)

S' comments: "The pasta was NOT OKAY." This is about cheese tortellini he ordered from the pasta station at the Lodge food court, which he immediately remarked tasted as if they had been frozen and thawed repeatedly.

He also notes: "the [Curry Pavillion] buffet was slightly better than Hometown Buffet." His opinion of HB is very low.

*

Things we brought (mostly from Trader Joe's) and enjoyed as picnic breakfasts and lunches: coffee flavored soy milk (tastes a bit like melted coffee ice cream), chocolate soy milk, plain Soy Dream, apple and cinnamon granola, peanut butter and apricot jam on nine-grain, locally purchased pepper jack cheese with TJ red pepper & eggplant spread on nine-grain (mmmmm), Balance Bars, dried pineapple chunks, TJ Matterhorn trail mix, fresh oranges, fresh bananas, fig-newton like bars, and a TJ "mixed olive bruschetta" which was extremely tasty spread on bread.

These meals from home, eaten outside, were our most satisfying. I was very sad that S' birthday didn't afford us more choices. The Mountain Room, which is the Lodge's fancy restaurant, didn't have anything on the menu that I wanted to eat (the one veggie item was in a cream sauce), so I ruled it out when S was non-committal. We didn't have clothes suitable to dine at the Awahnee, let alone reservations, and we herbivores are advised to call ahead to be sure we can be well accommodated. So S' birthday dinner waited until our return, so we could eat at Thai Time, scene of our first dinner together. (Awwww!) And that was wonderful, as expected.
posted by Arlene (Beth)4:32 PM