Yosemite National Park 11/11 (15)

On the way out of town I stopped to say goodbye to the Pacific Ocean. Sad, but happy for the experience of seeing her again. Was ready to leave Monterey. My head was getting tangled with memories of the past and knitted brows of the future. Tonight I’m getting early sleep and a good day of driving tomorrow. I got tired of memories and wanted something anew. Well, anew is what I’m getting.

Yosemite is the first new thing!

Yosemite

I have watched many climbing documentaries with my pro level bouldering daughter. We geeked out on Alex (just) before Free Solo, and I’ve watched the Dawn Wall (favorite) more than a few times. Often with her in the room, we like to trade looks of disbelief. But you can’t get a sense of a place from a movie or a show. You can’t fully feel the sense of scale from a flat screen.

El Cap has many faces, routes, and identifiers. The two I know about are The Nose, which is right out at the somewhat pointy point. The other is the Dawn Wall, which is just a face on the right of the mountain. It’s called that because the dawn hits it first, and it looks like fire. The movie Dawn Wall is a great one. Watch it from the comfort of your couch.

It was a lot of fun seeing them, but I was trying to figure out where the climbers were. It was an exercise in zoom on my phone camera, and even then I could only identify moving dots. That’s what gave me the super awe of seeing it in real life. Just knowing there are climbers you can’t see because they’re just so far up there. Amazing. Random points from Yosemite:

On the way in, you’re just amazed at the views and mountains around you.
On the way out, you’re no longer that impressed, having see the valley
The valley is just that, a valley. It got dark earlier there because the sky is a smaller slice when you’re in a slice of your own.
The road between the park gate and the valley itself is crazy long, just snaking your way to the valley.
The front gate was open but not staffed, free entry for all. Which is horrible. I donated in addition to my souvenir magnet purchase.
I’m glad it was warm and I could have the top down or open. Like the redwoods, you just have to be able to look up.

Deets

License Plates: Nope
States: CA
Departed: 7:12 am PDT, 56 degrees
Original ETA 10:32 am PDT
Arrival: 11:00 am PDT
Weather: Quite nice, if a bit cloudy. Top down for the second half of the drive
Budget: Food below, Hotel just below
Food: Egg Salad sandwich from Yosemite deli, not a vending machine. Burger from the hotel bar
Music: Early naughts electronica, Prefab Sprout – Steve McQueen, Led Zeppelin – IV, Solex – Solex vs. the Hitmeister

Observations

Drove through many orchards in the central valley
The roads in the orchards made me grumpy with their bumpy. GPS told me to.
The twisties I encountered today I have deemed “diet twisties” or “cruise control twisties” despite what all of the minivan brake lights said. It’s like getting the generic version of the toy you wanted for Christmas. His name isn’t Luke Skystalker and he doesn’t ride a freaking motorcycle.