California, 25th October, joining the throng in Yosemite Valley

Coming down the way from Glacier Point you pass Tunnel View, a famous overlook immortalised by Ansel Adams' photograph " Clearing Winter Storm" which was taken from just above here, where the old road used to travel. By the time we got to Tunnel View  the car park was full of coaches and the panorama of the valley could not be seen for tourists of all nationalities jostling for position. We did an about turn and drove down to the parking area around El Capitan and walked to the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls. The falls are so called as the wind causes the water to spray out at the top in a veil. Unfortunately there is not a lot of water in October, but I did take a photo to show the effect.
El Capitan, a face of sheer granite, rises 3,000 ft from the valley floor. On the opposite side are Cathedral Rocks, pretty ambitious in their own right and we had a short walk around here.






Sticking to the tourist trail we landed at the Ahwahnee Hotel a very posh venue where I treated myself and used the loos! Adams disliked the design of the hotel, built in 1925, however the interior was created by friends of his Arthur Pope, Phyllis Ackerman and Jeannette Spencer and he was in favour of this. The name Ahwahnee is the Miwok native Indian name for Yosemite Valley, meaning "the place of the big mouth". The valley was discovered by the white man in 1851 and by 1855 all the Ahwahneechee or dwellers of the Ahwahnee had gone. In 1864 Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite grant which entrusted Yosemite and Mariposa Grove to the state of California stating that "the premises shall be held for public use, resort and recreation". In effect the first US National Park.


Then it was back to Yosemite Village, but this time to the graveyard at the back which is now being restored. There are only a few headstones but many more bodies.


As the day grew longer we went down to the Merced River and then had a feast of wildlife as we saw the mule deer in Cooks meadow and passed the one and only bear we saw in our time in California, on our way back to Tunnel View for sunset. I had only a fleeting moment to photograph him as we screeched to a halt and fumbled for the camera.





Reaching Tunnel View the weather closed in and rather than have a clearing storm the weather was coming at us from across the valley. This gave the advantage of  a vacant carpark and and an atmospheric scene but we were soon blanketed in cloud which called a halt to the days proceedings. So it was back to the campsite for more pasta! 



That evening we returned to Yosemite Village to watch a film at the Yosemite Theatre, 'Return to Balance, a Climber's Journey'. It was introduced by the climber himself, Roy Kauk who spoke about the valley and how it had changed during his time climbing there. About the drought and the concern he had for the ecology of the place. Roy Kauk had been introducing his film three times a week since the spring but did not seem to be too sick of it.



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