A Breath of Yosemite National Park

Elisabeth and I have returned from our very first trip to Yosemite National Park. It's a very beautiful park, and I was happily surprised by the shuttle system in place. We were a little bummed to find that some of the roads were closed for the season (especially since they were closed due to snow despite the lack of snow...). On the bright side, we will have a chance to come back in the spring (June or so) and check out some wild flowers as well as some of the previously closed attractions. Climbing to the top of some of the longer hikes is more like what I want to do.

Upon entering the park, you are greeted by some awesome granite mountains. They're everywhere; that's the entire point of the park, I think. As always, pictures don't quite do them justice - you can stand at the base of one of these mountains and not be able to see the top because it's so high up there. It's ridiculous and exciting.

Please mind that all these pictures were taken on the 28th and 29th of December, 2013. There's very little snow here, but I expect that a regular year would have the valley floor covered in snowfall.

I separated the photos in to various sections just for a sort of organization. They're not necessarily in a date order, or progression order, or anything. If you don't like it, feel free to go start your own blog with blackjack and hookers.

Mountain Section

Mountain photographs. They move fast, so some of the pictures might be a little blurry. I'm sorry about that.

The first picture out of the camera. 

Look at that action! I'm lucky I caught this little bugger at 1/1250 shutter speed.

An early morning silhouette of a rock face.

The Yosemite Valley. This is up near the tunnel if you follow "Tunnel View" signs. We were initially disappointed by the amount of air planes flying over head, but they ended up making a cool path to the vanishing point on the horizon.

Click me for a bigger image!

You know you want to!

Trees Section

Yosemite National Park is also known for the Sequoias. Sequoias have the potential to be huge, and they are really a sight to behold. Take a gander at the pictures below...

I LOVE THIS TREE.

Feelin' up the tree. Hand added for scale. (And because she wouldn't stop feelin' up the tree...insert "Wood family" jokes here.)

I added a wife for a more proper scale. Look how large the plate armor on the tree is!

...and now I want you to know that these aren't even sequoias. These are just plain, boring, Ponderosa pine (Pinus benthamiana) trees. I mean, not that boring, but you know what I mean. They're huge! You walk beneath these trees most of the time in the valley, and you never realize how tall they are until you look around and realize that there are no tree branches near the ground. When you tilt your head up to see the tops, your brain turns off and you drool trying to comprehend how tall these trees have become. Then you realize that there are bigger trees south of the valley.

  Water Section

There's also a lot of springs, rivers, and ponds in the valley floor. From the lines on the rocks, we could tell that the water was low, but it was still flowing and there was very little ice.

That snow almost killed me - it's more dangerous than bears.

Mirror Lake.

Water rushes over top of the smaller rocks, whispering sweet nothings in it's ear as it passes.
"Splish, splash..."

Rocks in the wild. Often found resting in creek beds, where they have been known to lure in hikers and traveler using their deceptive stable demeanor. Then, as the hiker places his weight upon the rock, the rock slips out from underneath their sure footing and rolls away, likely guffawing at it's prank. The rock then consumes the fallen, moist, tasty hiker and waits for another victim.

Click me for a larger photo of this rock panorama!

(It's so worth it!)

Stars Section

My star photos didn't turn out as great as I would have liked them too, but they are still some of my favorite photos from the trip. We spent an hour or so out in the dark trying to take these pictures, so it was a little disappointing to see that they were all blurry. That, and we had some headlight douche up the street from us (he just had his headlights on the entire time) who proceeded to follow us for a little bit. Elisabeth was creeped out, and rightfully so, but I wasn't too worried. Nothing happened between us, other than he ruined a couple of photos. Fuck you and your blue headlights, douchy hatchback dude.

I just hate that you can't get this view from inside of a city.

It's like we're looking at a projection of the stars on a giant screen.

A speckled view of the universe outside of our planet. It's crazy to think that the light in the photo traveled for millions and millions of years just to collide with my camera lens, refracts a little bit, and lands on my camera sensor. Maybe there's a little energy loss as heat, and maybe it reflects back out some how and flies away...

Mushroom Section

I truly enjoy mushroom hunting and identification. While on a hike up to Mirror Lake, we encountered these lovely specimen. I haven't spent much time researching what they are, but I'll likely go on the hunt for an ID on these guys later. In case you don't know much about mushrooms, they are typically a sign of a healthy ecosystem. These mushrooms were growing on a fallen tree next to both moss and lichen, so everyone is receiving benefits from this dead log.

This mushroom and the picture underneath appear to be a Pleurotus genus mushroom, but I'm uncertain on species. The ostreatus species is most common in Yosemite from what I can tell.

The Pleurotus ostreatus is the oyster mushroom. If you eat mushrooms from the store regularly, you may have had one before. This picture doesn't look so much like the pictures I found for identification though, so I may be wrong.

A small haven for mushrooms and mycelia in a dead log branch. This one appeared to be a small polypore (Trametes spp.?), as indicated by the other polypores growing nearby.

Miscellaneous Section

Just some odds and ends that I wanted to share.

"I'm going to let you photograph me as long as you're using that telephoto lens from a good loooong distance away."

Trippin' balls.

"Don't quoth me on that." - Raven

"And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,

And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

     Shall be lifted - nevermore!"

This raven spent his morning on the top of our tent, probably warming up on our lost heat. I took this picture specifically to leave that poem chunk, by the way.

Closing Remarks!

I want to leave you with the same sight that Elisabeth and I had when we were leaving. It's a photograph of Half Dome with the sunset light casting it's orange hue upon the granite. As you should be able to tell, Yosemite National Park is a multi-faceted adventure that can be experienced in many ways, and most likely not in one trip.

XOXO
Gossip Josh.