Life In Yosemite» Fall Foliage in VT | Life In Yosemite

Fall Foliage in VT

Administrator — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:28:17 +0000

Flowers by a barn at Trapps Family Lodge

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.

More foliage at Trapps

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.

Stowe Church

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.

Sentinel Dome Evening – Grouse Creek Fire

Theresa — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:02:13 +0000

Sentinel Dome at Sunset

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.

Full Moon rising over the Clark Range

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.

Original Firecrackers - I loved the flames that were coming out of the top of the standing tree.

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.

Light in the darkness

Great images.

Theresa — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:18:52 +0000

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.

Guilty Bear Jam Pleasure

Theresa — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:51:37 +0000

Mama bear and cub

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.

Brother Bears

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.

Bear Family

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.

Before Work Adventure

Theresa — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:58:21 +0000

Leaving the car - 5am

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.

But I wanted company, so I wrangled Tom into coming with me too. (By wrangled, I mean, I asked if he would be interested, and he immediately said yes. It was not one of those long, drawn-out wrangling session.) We set the alarm for 4:15am, and arrived at the trailhead by 5am. That might seem painfully early, but I had forgotten what a pleasure it is to get up pre-dawn in anticipation of some small adventure. It’s been 5-6 long years since we were happily ticking off long Yosemite climbing routes on a regular basis, and compared to that, our 4:15 alarm was a relaxed start.

Yay! It's still dark." title="Setting up the camera." width="225" height="300" class="size-medium wp-image-1376" />

Setting up the camera.
Yay! It's still dark.

We arrived at the trailhead just after 5am, and it was already light enough that, although we brought headlamps, we didn’t need to turn them on for the hike. The light made the hiking easy, but I started to worry that we were already too late to catch the first rays of morning, and tried to hike a little faster. To be clear – this isn’t “our” photograph. The idea, location, camera, and all the expertise belongs to the amazing photographer, Corey Rich, who was in the Valley but was elsewhere on assignment. We followed his detailed instructions on how to set up the camera, (1/500, f8.0, 20mm, focus, ISO200, every 10sec.) and then crossed our fingers. I was really hoping that we hadn’t missed the beginning light.

Tom and I shared a relieved and somewhat surprised look when we took the first image and it looked purely, substantially, and entirely black. Huh. Corey had warned us that he’d set the exposure for daylight, and that we would be able to see much more than the camera in the morning, but we still double checked that we hadn’t done something truly boneheaded, like leave the lens cap on or something. All systems seemed to be go. Given how much light we already thought there was, we decided that we weren’t going to be able to eyeball when light would start to appear on the sensor, and started taking the time-lapse images at 5:30am so we wouldn’t miss anything (sunrise was supposed to be 5:41am).

Tom and the ever-awesome Caldera Keg, in action

It was wonderful hanging out on the ledge early in the morning. Bird song filled the air, and as the camera clicked away, Tom and I settled into having a little breakfast. No need to skimp – we brought granola and yogurt and whipped out the Caldera Keg that the Neighborhood Ultralight Backpacking Guy gave us to brew up some tea.

It’s not camping – but having breakfast on a granite ledge and using a stove to brew up some hot drinks was enough to give me that same feeling of being out and away from it all. It occurs to me that this very spot is on my commute from our place in Yo West, and only about 10 minutes from the road. I could do this EVERY morning if I wanted to. Well, the breakfast part anyway, not the time-lapse images part.

Enjoying the tea, and the beautiful morning

After breakfast, Tom got a little work done, and I hung out and wrote in my journal (yes, the one that’s on paper that nobody gets to read). Watching him typing away so peacefully on his laptop, I realized that Corey had managed a cell phone conversation from this very spot the night before. If the reception gods were with us, we could actually work from this spot if we had a PC wireless card or some other system to hook our computers to cell service. Now, that would be an office situation to envy!

All that, AND we managed a short run before we had to leave. I’d made a plan to meet some friends for a morning session of photography with the Canon Photography in the Parks folks. Not a bad morning. (I did go to work, by the way, and worked an 8+ hour day too – but that all happened AFTER.)

Outdoor computing

Morning light in the Valley - the Three Brothers in the background

Canon in Yosemite

Theresa — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:21:16 +0000

Tom gets pointers from a Canon photographer.
The camera is one of the ones we borrowed

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.

Yosemite Flower Report

Administrator — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 06:18:02 +0000

Bird's Eye Gilia

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)…

Mystery Flower: Caryophyllaceae Family, Silene? Maybe Alpine Campion?

The Blue Dicks and the Poppies that are so amazing right at the beginning of the trail have been joined up front with Owl’s Clover, lupines and the Bird’s Eye Gilia. I missed the Shooting Stars, but Tom said he saw some – although they seem to be ending. The Baby Blue Eyes are still amazing, and the Goldfields are still there, but seemed to have moved. There is one spot (where we stopped for a snack on our last trip) where the Goldfields are almost done, but they are still blooming fiercely in other areas (maybe less direct sun? I’d have to go back and check). Also, the Popcorn Flowers that used to be so abundant seemed to be mostly gone.

In addition, we spotted (in no particular order) Pretty Faces, Chinese Houses, Fiesta Flowers, LOTs of Poison Oak, Indian Paintbrush, Fiddlenecks, Miner’s Lettuce and a bunch more that we don’t know yet. Today’s mystery is a flower that looks a lot like the Alpine Campion, but I still need to look at some more books. I’m still waiting for the Fairy Lanterns to bloom, but I think I have to wait until the Poppies are mostly gone for that. Guess I’ll just have to make another visit.

Fiesta Flower

And I just want to add – this is a wonderful trail to run – but not mid-day on a Saturday. The trail is narrow, and it can be difficult to get by people. We should have started either earlier or later in the day – which we have done before – but it was also nice to be able to enjoy the warmth and sunshine. (Yosemite West was a chilly 40 degrees after then mid-60s we enjoyed at Hite Cove.) Also, in answer to a perennial concern that we are not enjoying the flowers/scenery because we are jogging instead of walking – I hope it’s clear that I very much enjoyed the flowers.

Just doesn’t get old

Theresa — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 06:52:05 +0000

Gorgeous sunset

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.

Wildflowers in Winter

Theresa — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:26:43 +0000

Erik, celebrating the wildflowers

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.

For more pics…

Baby Blue Eyes

Poppies and Goldfields

Blue Dicks and Poppies

The Gang - Erik, Bruce, Heather, Tom

Winter Bears

Theresa — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:53:17 +0000

Bear Buddies

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.

We managed to get a few pictures of them snacking, and wrestling with each other in the woods. I’m not sure why so many of the images turned out fuzzy. I want to blame it on the kit lens, or maybe the lower light levels… In any case, the pics don’t really do justice to the experience of being able to stand (at a nice comfortable distance) and watch these amazing animals. Someday I hope I’ll figure out the photography end well enough to be able to share the experience better.

Just a few interesting observations: At one point, the buddy bears decided to wander down to the water for a drink. Passing their footprints later on, we noted how carefully they matched each other’s footsteps, just we were doing in the deep snow. We took a lot of pictures when we saw a bear sitting in the snow a few feet away from the deer carcass, with his hind legs straight out in front, in full on Pooh-bear with a pot of honey posture, regarding a bold raven that had landed nearby. The cutest thing – but none of those came out. At another point, just as we were leaving, one of the bears started lunge and feint at the crowd of ravens that were gathered all around. The ravens would hop back a few feet, and then move forward again as soon as the bear turned away. It reminded me of my fights with the eye-flies on the trails in the summer. Ultimately, mostly futile, but somehow satisfying when I manage to hit one of those irritating bugs. That would have been a sight to see. I wonder what the real relationship is between the bears and the ravens.

Bears wrestling in the snow

Snack Time