Thursday October 5: I headed out to Yosemite early as I had heard rumors of it being difficult to find a campsite. HA! All of the sites were full, so I planned on heading straight to Stanislaus National Forest, JUST outside of Yosemite. The drive here was long and kind of boring, but I think that’s because I was a bit stressed about not having a place to sleep. I organized and got myself oriented at my campsite before heading into the Valley and checking it out. It is overwhelming. Just magic. I headed back to the campsite before I could do any real exploring. I ate dinner and read my book by candlelight.

Friday October 6: I woke up, had delicious coffee and drove to Hetch Hetchy, which is a part of Yosemite that is not frequented by park visitors. John Muir described Hetch Hetchy as his favorite part of the park, but then developers flooded his favorite valley into a resevoir that feeds all of San Francisco’s drinking water.
I found Hetch Hetchy to be magnificent. It was beautiful, serene, and very quiet. I had a great time walking over the dam and through a tunnel to get to the hiking trails. I meandered and chit chatted with a guy named Kenny who was at least 70 and was about to go on a 3 day trek up the Sierras. Go Kenny!
After Hetch Hetchy, I made the long trek towards Toulumne Meadows. That’s Too-Wahl-Oh-Mee. I’m getting well-versed. Anyway, the drive was INCREDIBLE. There were towering mountains on both sides and you drove to nearly 10,000 feet. Near the top, there’s a fantastic glacial lake with a rocky set of mountains on one side and a smooth dome mountain on the other. I pulled off on the side of the road all day and just hiked around, not on trails, around the rocks. I am blown away by the geologic occurances that made this whole meadow area to be so. I have no IDEA how a glacier can do that, I want to see an animation of it. It doesn’t make sense to me!
I drove towards the National Forest around 5-ish as I wanted to get some dinner at the lodge down the road and didn’t want to get back too far after dark. I had a lovely kale Caesar and talked with the waitress for a while about her job. It’s fascinating how all of these people end up in obscure places like this, but really lucky.

Saturday October 7: I knew I had to get into the Valley rather early to avoid crowds and I was so glad I did. I snagged a parking spot and walked to Lower Yosemite Falls. These falls are UNREAL, they’re huge and powerful. I guess it was lucky that it even had water in it, they are typically dry by now. But, I was glad to see it. However, all of the magic was lost because I was in a crowd of hundreds of people who were yelling and talking.
I hopped on the shuttle and went to El Capitan and sat in a meadow with my book and watched the climbers on the mountain. The mountains in the valley are purely majestic and towering. They look like they just couldn’t be real. You can even see the way nature has shaped them, streaks of water that had run over the sides or even rock slides. There was a rock slide that happened last week and totally changed the face of El Cap. I guess it was a rock about 37 stories tall that fell and actually killed a man. I can’t even believe that a rock that large exists, let alone is just a chunk off the face of El Cap. These mountains are nothing to mess with.
I checked out the Visitor’s Center and watched the films about Yosemite. Then I made the long drive to Glacier Point, where John Muir took Teddy Roosevelt and persuaded him to start conserving land. It was another zoo, but I used my patience for the public and took deep breaths. The view from up there is unbelievable and there are no words to describe what you see below.
All day today I’ve been thinking about conservation, National Parks, and the American Public. It is a tricky balance to conserve these places so that there isn’t mass development and so that the public can see it. But then, the public kind of ruins the place? How strange is it that we want to conserve these places, just to have the view ruined by a bunch of tourists? Don’t get me wrong, I know I’m a tourist. I am SO glad to be here and have the opportunity to view these places that are untouched by development. However, where is the line between viewing the place and having too many viewers of the place. Yosemite is in the “off-season” right now, and it was the most crowded park I’ve been to. For now, I’m just glad to be far away from the public in a campsite in the National Forest Land.