Day 22: Beauty in America

There was a time when I thought one had to go to Europe to find true beauty. Those days have since passed especially since my first trip to Yellowstone Park. Yesterday, at Yosemite, I was the most sure I have ever been that there is abundant beauty in this country of ours. I sat at Glacier Point around sunset, listening to a ranger talk, and I was so moved by the beauty all around me that I could feel my eyes well up with tears.

We arrived at Yosemite National Park a little later than expected yesterday because the entrance closest to the town in which we were staying was closed due to roadwork. Better late than never though, as the saying goes. We drove along the widing, tree lined roads for a while, wondering what made this park distinct from all the others. Suddenly, we discovered the reason. Before us stood magnificent rock faces that were carved by glaciers millions of years ago. We witnessed the views of Half Dome and El Capitain that inspired some of Ansel Adam's brilliant photography.

We drove into Yosemite Village, a little weary from fighting crowds and motion sickness from the winding roads. We refueled and headed up to Yosemite Falls, the fifth largest waterfall in the World and the largest in North America. We climbed up huge rocks to get the best view possible, and were soaked with the cool spray of true spring water.

After the falls, we watched a video about Yosemite, and by that time it was coming upon late afternoon. The video talked about the "spirit" of the park and what it meant to the Native Americans who lived off the land and John Muir who loved the land and wanted to protect it. I understood the message, but I still did not feel a personal connection with this park. I was disenchanted by the crowds and the heat, and convinced that Yosemite may have been just a cliched family vacation spot from the 1950s that happened to have a nice view.

As we drove along the roads the Glacier Point, where a sunset ranger talk was taking place, the crowds began to diminish. The point is off the main road a ways, and it has very few amenities to attract people. The virtue of this place lay in its view alone. There were two hotels up there, but both were destroyed by fire and never rebuilt. While it would have been great to see the hotels or even stay in them, I liked the feeling of seclusion and peace that it seemed to uphold. There were still many people up at the rock, but as I listened to the ranger talk about the memories that were made in the park and thought about the memories that I was making, the other people seemed to melt away. I was in that moment, in that wonderful place. It is hard to say what my favorite place we have visited in our travels is, but I Glacier Point is my favorite single point that I have seen so far.

The night continued interestingly. We had a beautiful late dinner at the Yosemite Lodge Lounge, which after weeks of fast food, was a welcome change. We decided that instead of driving four hours to San Francisco at 11:00 at night we would spend the night in the park. By default, so to speak, we ended up "roughing it" in the canvas tents, complete with wooden floors, beds with linens and an electric light. The hardest part of our camping adventure was taking all of our food, trash and toiletries out of the car and putting it in "bear lockers" so that bears would not smell it and try to break into our car or our tent. All in all it was a fun experience, especially for one without camping experience like me, and it was worth it to spend a few more hours in the park.

It truly turned out to be a wonderful day, despite its challenges. It is an experience I won't soon forget. Stats will be included in the next post with San Fransisco stats.