News From Yosemite Valley

Well it’s been a quiet week in Yosemite Valley. Curry Village housekeeping is once again on reduced hours, not being open to the public during the week, only on weekends. During the week we have the young people of Yosemite Institute; Nothing like a bunch of grade school kids to remind you of what it’s like to be a mother. I was assigned YI rooms, and each one looked like an explosion in the luggage terminal at Sacramento International. It’s a good thing the only thing required of me was to make sure trash was taken out and provide fresh towels. Most rooms I could do neither without stepping on clothes and food and electronic devices. I did my best, reminding myself that I wasn’t their mom, and so did not have to clean up after them. Besides, the kids are outside all day, wandering in chaperoned packs, their faces alternately joyous and weary. I see them huddled around the teacher who lectures on leaves and trees and rocks and coyotes and bears. Sometimes I see them standing along a meadow, their young bodies held in that tense sort of deep respectful longing, watching a coyote leap and dig through the snow. It’s easy to forget the luggage terminal carnage of their rooms.

There’s been a recent outbreak of norovirus amongst the employees here in the valley. It’s not pleasant, body aches, low fever, headache and intestinal woes. It lasts about three days and you feel like curling up in a ball and sleeping through it. Yes, this is the voice of experience.

Mostly now my focus has been getting ready for the natural firefalls at Horsetail Falls this coming February. Last week I drove along Southside Drive to scout alternative sites to shoot from. As I drove along, there was a coyote playing chicken with the traffic, crisscrossing the road to get cars to slow and stop. She would trot alongside the stopped cars, her whole demeanor saying “feed me? I’m cold and hungry, feed me?” Of all the cars that stopped, not one gave her any food. She had a nice thick coat, and was not skinny by any stretch of the imagination. But she had that baleful look down to a science.

I’ve been corresponding with a woman in New York, she’s doing research on Horsetail Falls for a Japanese television program. Her English is much better than my Japanese, which is to say that however stilted and broken it is, I could not even begin to communicate at this level in her language. She has interesting questions for me regarding possibilities of Yosemite Valley for filming; The show must be about adventure and activity, because my correspondent asks about hikes and activities. I get the impression that a one mile walk to the El Capitan picnic area isn’t active enough, and that it would be better if the reporter had to climb a dangerous trail to see the natural firefalls.

Another thing that’s been occupying my thoughts is the lunar eclipse on February 20th. I would love to photograph it from Glacier Point, or even Sentinel Dome, but I don’t have the cross country skiing skills for that. So I’m hoping that I can drive over I-80 to the east side of the Sierra, down to Mono Lake to shoot the eclipse with the tufa in the foreground. It will be a long and possibly dangerous trip. I’m wondering if I should chance the 4 mile trail to get a good set of shots of it over Tenaya Canyon instead.

Today I went over to the museum and saw the photo exhibit “Yosemite in the 60’s”, by Glen Denny. What a handsome set of photographs, all in black and white. Well worth the trip to see it, and it will be in place until February 27th. Go and see it if you can.

On a final note, I made a pleasant discovery today at the new display at the Visitor’s Center; the marketing firm that contacted me in March of last year actually did use one of my photos! It’s the one of the Three Brothers, and it’s next to the thunder and lightning display at the beginning of the installation.

And that’s the news from Yosemite Valley, where all of the residents are cold, all of the coyotes are street beggars, and all of the Yosemite Institute instructors are saints.