Yosemite, Day One

(I'm back dating these posts, pretending either that I wrote them from Tent Cabin 545, where there was no electrical outlet, or, if you prefer, that I had a time machine.)

We took a bit of a circuitous route to Yosemite, following a path laid out by a GPS with only a vague familiarity with the areas we were passing. It was a pretty route though, and we passed through one small town where the firemen were collecting money by passing boots around from car to car at intersections, and another small town where there was a guy on stilts (we never did figure out why.)

I hadn't been to Yosemite in the busy season in years. Decades, even. I've been going in February, March and October. So imagine my surprise to discover traffic jams in the valley. Stop and go traffic to get to a tent cabin. Rangers on bikes who wouldn't let us pass if we didn't have reservations. (You shall not pass, rangers on bikes, I just can't help this stuff.)

We did have reservations, though clearly we forgot to reserve a parking spot. I guess it's some sort of commentary on our times when parking in a National Park is a big issue. I mean, I went to the National Park to get away from problems like parking. Luckily, we did find a spot that only required a moderate hike to the check in desk. From there, a guy with a golf cart helped us shuttle all of our stuff to our cabin.

Which led to another sort of dilemma...do you tip the guy who shuttles your luggage from the outer reaches of a parking lot to a canvas tent, via golf cart? All sorts of etiquette contradictions there. Have you ever tipped a National Park employee? Is a bellhop really a bellhop if he's in a golf cart?

We settled in nicely, though the bear locker we were assigned was much smaller than we expected. The tent cabins were hopping, especially several large rocks that were covered with children. Provided us with some interesting eavesdropping. My favorite jewel was a ten year old (or so) girl who started to shout out a story with the preface "This is a non-fiction story that took place, oh, about an hour ago."

Once we settled, we packed up some photo gear, and started a good wander. We ended up by Mirror Lake, feeling proud of ourselves for not being overly bothered by the shallow but long uphill climb to get to the water. We puttered around, took many photos (which I'll add in here soon) and then headed back to the cabin.

I led us through a few rounds of "A year ago today, we were...." Rehearsal dinner night!! Good times!!

Then, we crashed. We were asleep before the sun set.