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Orb Designs Field Trips

Yosemite in February, 2001

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THIS IS PAGE ONE... Page two is over here!

Yosemite National Park in February, 2001. Commentary as it strikes me. Just pictures, without even decent ALT text, to start with. Bear with me, there's lots of catching up to do, but some of these pictures I like a lot ... most are OK, a couple are crap (fuzzy, badly framed or something), but you get the good, the bad and the ugly from me...

Vista point Panorama 1 Vista point Panorama 2 Vista point Panorama 3 Vista point Panorama 4 Ornamental Snow A glimpse of Big Meadow .

Above. Our trip took us from Sunnyvale, up 680N to 580E to 205E to Manteca, where we picked up 120 E and followed it into Yosemite. There are several other routes, but the eastern one, Tioga Pass is closed for the winter. The other (western) two, highways 41 and 140 lead out to Merced and Fresno. At our first "scenic" roadside stop, I snapped the four leftmost pix, to generate (eventually) a single panorama. Across the street from the pull-out was a bit of ornamental snow. On this whole trip, there was really nothing more than ornamental snow. Pretty to look at, decorative, dangerous as heck to walk on. But I am getting ahead of myself. The rightmost snap is of Big Meadow, caught as that white patch between the trees.

Big Meadow plaque Hillside Rocks Dead Tree Burnout Hills 1 Burnout Hills 2 .

Above: Big Meadow is/was a vivid demonstration of the progression of lake to swamp to meadow to forest. Each year the meadow's been encroached on a bit more by the surrounding forests. Snap two is of the hillside below our second roadside stopping point, further along the range of hills encircling Big Meadow. Then there were some standing rocks that I liked a lot (picture 3), and a stark remnant of burnt dead tree (picture 4). Shots five and six above are the first big pictures of the surrounding lands (we're at the outskirts of Yosemite here), still staggered from the 25,000+ acre fire of 1990. There's some scrub, lots of Manzanita, and precious few trees. The forestation of Big Meadow was set back a few years with this one.

Burnout Hills 3 Rock, Snow and Wood Brian on the rocks First view of Yosemite Valley First shot Yosemite, in perspective Another direction, granite slope .

Above, yet another fired hills snap, then a set piece of rock, snow and down'd tree. Third up is Brian on the rocks. Then we progressed up the road to our first distant view of Yosemite valley, with El Capitan and Half Dome in view. This is close as the camera can get (optically) in snap four, and backed up a bit for perspective in snap five. Then, turning a bit to my right, I took a picture of the granite wall across from the pull-out.

Granite wall Rock face Merced River in the valley Under the rock face Tree and rock, at the edge Across the valley .

Above, a few shots from two or three roadside pullouts, still headed into the valley. We did more stop than go for a few miles.

Trees in winter 1 Trees in winter 2 Merced River upstream Merced River downstream El Capitan emerges El Capitan's right shoulder .

Above. Finally we got down to the valley floor, and headed up into Yosemite Valley proper. At this point, we've been inside the park for about 25 or 30 driving miles - it's huge! The weather was slightly overcast, and it was beginning to seem just a bit wintery, especially as I took the first two shots above. Then the next two were at yet another wayside stop, where I could shoot up and down the Merced river. This is downstream of the flat bit of the Yosemite Valley, below the terminal morrain that was left behind by the last glaciation. The stream here is rocky and much more aggressively sloped. Then El Capitan emerged around one bend, and here's the view Marcia took in for the very first time. About 3600 feet high from the valley floor, over a mile wide at it's base, El Capitan is the largest known single piece of granite in the world. There are 80 documented climbing routes up the face. We'll return to that topic later. Final shot above is the right shoulder of El Cap.

El Capitan looming Upper Yosemite Falls 1 Upper Yosemite Falls 2 Lower Yosemite Falls 1 Lower Yosemite Falls 2 Split rock .

Our final drive-in picture of El Capitan leads off the above set of snaps. Impressive. We wound through the valley, following the signs to our destination, Yosemite Lodge. The lodge, of which we took absolutely no pictures, is acceptable accomodation, with stunning views. Additionally, it is immediately adjacent to the base of the trail to Yosemite Falls. We checked in, unpacked, and decided to trek on over to the base of these hugely tall Falls. Altogether, Yosemite Falls is 2400 feet in height, dropping in three stages. Pictures two and three above are of the upper falls. By themselves, the Upper Fall is just over 1400 feet, enough to make it the seventh tallest single fall in the world. The Mid and Lower Falls are shown in snaps four and five, caught in a gap between the trees as we hiked the trail up to the Falls. Along the trail, a boulder had fallen from the rock wall above, and split upon landing, years ago.

Marcia and rock Falls from viewing platform 1 Falls from viewing platform 2 The rocky road to success Lower and Upper falls Lower Falls close up .

Above: a shade further along, Marcia went up to one of these trailside rocks, I took a picture to give you a sense of the scale of these house-size boulders. Then we arrived at the viewing platform and footbridge across Yosemite Creek (as it's called, from the base of the Falls until it joins the Merced in mid-valley. I took shots two and three of the Lower Falls from the rocky flat area (viewing platform) adjoining the bridge. Not satisfied with the distance between the footbridge downstream of the Falls and the base, I trekked up through the rubble field below the Falls to get some closeups of the Lower Falls. In shot four, you can see the rocky trail I chose to get up closer to the base of the Falls. Here, there are a number of trees, indicating that there hasn't been a major rock fall here in several years... Then the trees came to an end, and I emerged into the rocky slope just below the base of the falls. There I captured my first shot, with the Lower Falls close-ish, and the very top of the Upper Falls peeping over the head of the Lower. Then I went forward about 10 yards, and snapped just the Lower Falls.

Spray from the lowest ledge Falls base pool Yosemite Creek out of the rock fall field The Falls again, from the footbridge A fallen tree along the trail back Valley wall backdrops the trees .

Above: I caught a closeup of the Lower Falls striking the ledge above the pool at the base of the Falls. Then I clambered back down to rejoin a ... perturbed Marcia. We took a snap of Yosemite Creek as it emerges from the rubble field below the Falls. She didn't have quite the idea that I was going to be mountain goating around in an active rockfall field (field shown in picture four) to get close-up pictures of the Falls. Sorry, Hon! Then we walked on across the footbridge, and I almost lost my footing on a patch of ice. But in compensation for not falling, I did a real number on my left knee. It locked, then hit - and took all my weight at a bad angle. I started limping quite badly following that. So we headed back towards the Lodge, catching the fallen tree with snow on, and a granite wall behind the trees, on our walk back.

Now head along over to Page two. I broke up the report to ease loading times.



All Content Copyright © 1999-2001 Brian P. Bilbrey.