After 14 years together, Tom and I finally went to visit Tom’s parents in VT for a week during fall foliage season. Foliage season in VT is a little like the Holiday season in other towns – the hotels fill up and are charging peak rates, there’re a million people running around with cameras, snapping shots of pumpkins and other squashes, sheaves of wheat, and of course the colorful leaves.

When I asked Tom what he remembered of foliage season in VT, he said that he mostly remembered October as being rainy and grey. Sure enough, it rained every single day that we were there. Fortunately, the clouds broke enough on a couple of days that I was able to get out and see what the wash of color looked like in the sun. It was amazing.

The Sierra gets color too. I’d say that we are near peak now – several weeks after the VT foliage passed its prime. The gullies fill with gold, and here and there a bright yellow big leaf maple, or a rosy dogwood, flashes in the sunshine. Le Conte gully, in particular, is full of these small bushes that turn a brilliant shade of yellow in the fall. Stavast has a painting called Golden Armada, and I’m convinced that these are Golden Armada bushes, whatever those are. One of my rescuers recently told me that when they airlifted me out of Le Conte Gully three years ago, the rotor from the helicopter picked up a tornado of golden leaves, rising up into the air around me. Would have been cool to see.

But VT really fills with color – so much so that sometimes it seemed like my eyes were attracted to the small contrasting bit of green among all the reds, oranges, and yellows. There are more deciduous trees and fewer conifers than here, and more mountainous terrain than my home state of MN, all of which combines to create a scene really worth traveling for. We took a hike down near Waterbury Reservoir, taking in the scenery and being impressed with the people who once made a living in that steep and rocky soil. The Ricker family cemetery was particularly impressive, with three generations of Rickers, marked with headstones like the one for Phoebe Ricker who lived to be over a hundred. They must have been a hearty crew, although the nearby headstones for an infant and two other young children speaks to how tough living there really was.

Of course, the other reason to travel to VT, in any season, is the chance to visit with Tom’s family. Tom’s parents were wonderful and welcoming hosts. Denis rescued us in the middle of the night when our delayed flight meant that we arrived after the car rental desk had closed for the evening. We had a dinner with him, his family, and Steve C. one evening while we were there. Tracy, Ron and Julia drove up just to have some lunch with us. Julia’s list of 101 things to do before she graduates from high school, inspired me to try to come up with a bucket list too. I’m still working on it. Dinner with Steve and Mary is always a pleasure, and we’re hoping to see more of them on this coast now that Andrew is out here.

As always, vacation is just a bit too short. The day our departure flight was scheduled was to be the first sunny day that week, and we missed out on getting to sail in a race with Denis aboard his J-24. It’s not that I don’t love Yosemite, and being in the Sierra, but vacation is always good.

I said there would be pictures. Shauna and I returned to Sentinel Dome on Monday night to have some dinner, check out the moon and the fires. I was running late, and Shauna packed up the most amazing dinner with pasta, wine, and CHOCOLATE CAKE! We outlasted the ranger-led moonlight hike on the top of Sentinel Dome, and I enjoyed the food, the conversation and the scenery.

It’s no wonder that there are so many stories about being outdoors under a full moon. Everything about it screams magic. And then, when the food was eaten, we hiked down and checked out the Grouse Creek Fire.

It’s not nearly as impressive as it had been Sunday night, and a fire-fighter that we met at one of the pull-outs said that even Sunday paled in comparison to Saturday night when he and his hotshot crew had first lit the hillside – “a little lightin’ and fightin’” was how he put it when the wind had changed direction unexpectedly. He was so proud of what they had done, and called out one of his buddies to show us a short video of the fire. He was right to be proud. We can go ahead and put that on the list of jobs that I really could never do.

Although I brought a light-weight tripod with me, I didn’t end up setting it up for the pictures of the fire. Too lazy – although I sort of regret it now. Plus, it was difficult to tighten the mount enough and the camera kept drooping anyway, so it seemed like kind of a hassle. This is enough to get a feel for what we saw, but what I really wish is that we’d gotten some pictures earlier during the fire. Oh well – this is Yosemite. There will be other fires.

We didn’t pull back into the neighborhood until just before midnight. Good thing, because Tom was almost ready to go looking for me. I was bubbling with excitement from our little adventure, and all Tom wanted to do was go to bed. Poor guy. I sure am lucky.

I get an occasional tip here and there on how to use Photoshop from the amazing and creative in-house graphic designer in our office, but just in case I get to thinking that I know how to do a thing or two… there are images like these which are in a completely different league.

It’s not that I can’t start to figure out now, how someone would start to put an image like that together, but coming up with the ideas, planning the shot out, taking different images and figuring out how to put them together. Truly cool.

And while you’re there, check out some cool wildlife pics. I’m not sure some of them aren’t also examples of very clever Photoshop-ery, but they are neat anway.

If I see a bear by the side of the road, find a legal pull-out, get out of my car and watch, and then a Bear Jam forms, is that my fault?

Usually, the way bear jams or deer jams form, is that one person notices the animals. Drawn by their attention, a group begins to gather. Motorists slow down to see what they are looking at. When that something is a bear – or in this case, a momma bear and two absolutely adorable cubs – crowds form, traffic slows, and before you know it – Bear Jam.

I have proven over and over, that I am EXACTLY the sort of person that stops in the middle of the road in order to get a better look at some cool animal. Tom and I came to a full halt in the middle of the road in Australia to watch an Echidna uncurl and then complete it’s wobbling deliberate journey across the road. I’ve stopped mid-drive for bear, coyotes, even a couple of road-side flowers. Sometimes, you just have to stop.

However, I do at least try to be reasonably considerate about it. I am more than aware that not everyone on the road has the same inclination to come to a complete mesmerized halt at the very same moment that I do. After all, most of the time the person that isn’t interested in the thing by the road, or actually has someplace to be, is me. Besides, coming to a complete stop in the middle of the road just around a blind corner is freaking dangerous.

Most recently, Tom and I were caravanning two cars back to our house when I looked over and spotted a bear. Tom had seen her too, and we pulled over in the nearest pull-out, grabbed our camera and binoculars and walked back up the street. It wasn’t long before a giant crowd formed. Some people just stopped in the road. Others, with more consideration tried, unsuccessfully, to pull mostly off the street before jumping out to take pictures.

Before long, a resigned-looking ranger appeared, trying to clear the traffic, keep half an eye on people creeping down into the meadow to take a closer look, and get the illegally parked cars off the road. I didn’t envy him his job at that moment.

The bears had probably been in the meadow for quite some time. If we hadn’t stopped, maybe no one would have noticed. Maybe the Bear Jam wouldn’t have formed at all. Although I feel a little guilty about that, we did get some nice pictures – and a chance to watch some really beautiful bears doing wild bear things.

One of the best things about living in a National Park are the random things that fall into your plate just because you’re around. I got a call Tuesday afternoon – did I know anyone that would be interested in helping out a photographer/friend by setting up a time-lapse shot and hanging around to watch over it a bit? Um. Yes. Me.
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For the last several years, Canon Photography in the Parks has spent a couple of weeks in Yosemite. They have a stand set up right on the Yosemite Mall in front of the Visitor’s Center where you can sign up in advance to go on a 2-hour photo walk, get instruction from their staff photographers, and borrow their fancy-dance SLR cameras and lenses – for FREE. That’s exciting enough to repeat – FREE! FREE! FREE!

When you are finished with your walk, they keep track of which camera you used and therefore which chip your pictures are on, and then they send you an email later so that you can retrieve all of your images.

Tom and I have been thinking about new and improved lenses practically since we bought our new Canon XSi, and this is a great try before you buy option. The first time I visited their site, I saw the Photography Contest header and didn’t wait until the Flash loaded (on my medium speed connection, it takes a while), but their Yosemite schedule is posted there, as well as other parks that they will be visiting over the rest of the summer.

Tom and I dodged down to Hite Cove to check up on the flowers there and get a little run in. The run was marvelous. We went all the way to the Cove, and I felt great – although my legs were cramping a little toward the end (not sure why). Plus, the flowers were spectacular.

A friend had been a little worried that the poppies were past. True, they may not be as abundant as they have been, but there are still plenty spectacular. Right now, it seems like the best display is further up-canyon, near El Portal. For my money, the hillsides have gotten even more interesting because instead of uninterrupted carpets of orange, the orange is punctuated with many other flowers and colors. I think the show stopper this trip, were the beautiful patches of Bird’s Eye Gilia (of which I got the Gilia and the B, but had to look up the rest).. or the RedBud. RedBud is always amazing when it is in bloom.

Many of the people that I stopped to ask about flower names could only shrug. To my, “Ooo – do you know what kind of flower that is?” one guy smiled and said, “The pretty kind”. True enough. Still, for those who are interested in this kind of thing (and are understanding of my imperfect flower identification skills)…
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Someone asked me once if it got old living in Yosemite – seeing the same old scenery day after day until Yosemite Falls is just ho hum. I do think that I sometimes get distracted by other things. Maybe I’m already thinking about the project that I’m working on in the office when I round the corner and El Cap looms large in the windshield, or I’m late to work and just trying to avoid the guy who stopped in the middle of the road around a corner so that he could take pictures of who knows what. Still, even after living here for 5 years, Yosemite still makes my jaw drop. This is a picture I took on my way home from work on Friday.

During the summer, the sky is so predictably clear, that clouds are always a very special event, and this sunset was so amazing that it literally stopped me in my tracks. I pulled over into a pull out and snapped a few quick pictures. The clouds in the sky have been impressive for the last couple of nights, and with this storm coming in, I’m looking forward to clearing skies either Monday or Tuesday for more amazing skies.

Today’s the first day of Daylight’s Savings, and Tom, in his typically astute fashion, points out that it should be a National Holiday. The rate of accidents increases when the times shift because people have messed up sleep schedules. It would be much safer to have an extra day on the weekend to adapt. Plus, in this case, it gives us more of a chance to celebrate the long evening hours.

We piled a bunch of friends in to the car today and wandered down canyon to take pictures of the wildflowers. It was a gorgeously warm and sunny day, and the poppies, as everyone has been claiming, are out in force already this year. When we stopped at Hites Cove, we also saw huge clusters of blooming Popcorn flowers, Blue Dicks, Gold Fields, Shooting Stars, Baby Blue Eyes… and all the flowers that we don’t know or can’t remember. It’s an amazing display. The lupines aren’t out yet, and I always look forward to the Fairy Lanterns, so I suspect we’ll be taking more trips down there to watch the spring bloom.

When we got back to Yosemite West, it was almost shocking to see the amount of snow that was still there. Being able to drive back and forth between seasons is like getting to travel through time. Turns out, Spring is only about 5 miles from Winter, as the crow flies.

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Yosemite’s bears, like most black bears, usually settle down in the winter time and hibernate. (There’s some confusion about the term because different animals hibernate in different ways, but black bears enter a state where they don’t move around, eat, drink, urinate or defecate for many months, and according to the North American Bear Center, leading physiologists have returned to just using the word hibernate, again.) But this year, there are a couple of bears in Yosemite that seem to staying up late to explore winter, (there’s a children’s story in there somewhere) and Tom and I were lucky enough to see them a few weeks ago.
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