Yosemite: summer edition
My family has an old magnet on our fridge from Yosemite National Park, so I grew up with a small daily glimpse at the icon that is Half Dome. My mom recalls one trip to Yosemite in late fall—the park was nearly empty, and Tuolomne Meadows was stunning in its fall foliage. She and her friend saw a wolf near the roadside one day. My sister Lauren found a photo album of my mom's film from Yosemite and the images and trip together are so beautifully woven in memory and my parents' stories of this beloved place.
With such a high expectation for Yosemite, upon my first visit in February 2015, I was not disappointed in the slightest. Due to the wintry atmosphere, many areas of the park were closed at that time, but Audrey, Laura, and I decided we were simply due for a summer visit sometime in the future. In August 2016, when Laura was still located in the Bay Area for work, we (Audrey, my cousin Wade, and I) visited her in San Francisco and made our summer trip to Yosemite. [yes, two years ago from this writing—it's fine. For me, a chronic project-beginner-but-not-finisher, I find it simply astonishing that I have stuck with any this long, let alone an overwhelming project that is this blog's backlog, which I've continued to slowly chip away at, compiling photographs and writing that I wish to curate and remember and keep. <3 But I always feel the need for the parenthetical explanation because it just feels so ridiculous at times.]
Audrey and I still, to date, have high hopes to someday hike Half Dome, but alas it was not in the cards for this trip. Instead, we spent much of our time in the Tuolomne Meadows (hiking Lembert Dome and Dog Lake) and driving through the park to Glacier Point (which overlooks Half Dome and the surrounding mountains). This return visit to the park affirmed that which I'd already known: the Sierra Nevadas are sublimely spectacular. The grey granite peaks and intervening valleys are magnificent and the sheer scale of this place inspires awe, plain and simple.
a photographic homage to my namesake Austen heroine (here I invoke the definition of namesake that suggests simply, "a person or thing that has the same name as another," rather than the possibly more common definition implying causation) and Dario Marinelli's gorgeous soundtrack composition to Joe Wright's cinematic masterpiece, "Liz on Top of the World."
a tiny Half Dome, just visible in the distance
Glacier Point offers a truly spectacular vista, one only accessible during the summer months when the roads are free of snow and ice. We went early in the morning, which is advisable as parking fills up and the road is later closed off due to said traffic and parking jams.
Lembert Dome is perhaps one of my very favorite hikes to date. The photo of Audrey above is deceiving, as it looks like she is standing at the very edge, however that is not the case due to the domelike nature of the peak—behind her is a gradual descent, obscured by geometry, perspective, and distance. Approaching the top, there were certainly areas of greater heights and subsequent dropoffs, but much of the hike was very gradual and offered paths safely in the center, during all of which I felt secure and safe. For those with a fear of heights, this may be a hike to pass on, but it did not faze me as the conditions were such that we were safe and on solid terrain the entire time. The scenery and views of the Tuolomne Meadows below were striking. The colors had faded some due to the late summer heat, but it was beautiful nonetheless.
Not so much a highlight: on our hike out from Dog Lake, Laura tripped on a loose rock and sprained her ankle very badly. We carried her down a mountain—literally—because that's what friends are for. Despite the unfortunate ending of our Dog Lake hike, this trip was lovely and seeing Yosemite in the depths of summer was marvelous, and a totally and completely different experience than that of the previous February. I don't think there could be a season that doesn't look good on Yosemite National Park.
