Framedlight

We stopped at the parking area by the Cathedral Lakes trailhead and read the notices. Bears were apparently very active in the neighbourhood and there was only one other car in the vicinity, this side of Yosemite was really quiet. It was suggested that all food toiletries etc were emptied from cars and placed in the provided bear lockers. As any passing bear would have only a couple of cars to go at we thought it sensible to comply. Bear damage is not covered by any hire insurance and the hire company had told us of returned cars with trails of bear claws down the side and smashed in windows. Having lugged all our gear including the chiller into the locker we made some sandwiches and set off on the 5 hour journey. The first part was pretty boring as we laboured upwards through the conifers but we soon reached the base of the north side of Cathedral Peak, unrecognisable from this angle and saw a glimpse of smoke and smell of burning from the distant forest fires. We could see evidence ...

The campsite in Lee Vining was very comfortable compared to the National Park site we had had in Yosemite valley. The Park sites are normally very basic and all that is provided is drinking water, loos and means of disposal of any waste, so to get up in the morning and go to a room with showers, mirrors and warmth was lovely. We did drag ourselves away very promptly though and drove up the Lee Vining Grade in the dark to get sunrise around the head of the Tioga Pass. I have included a picture of the plaque on the top of the pass for information and so I don't have to type it all out. It was bitterly cold there and there was much stamping of feet and blowing of nails. We were lucky that some small groves of aspens still had some leaves as the colour stood out so well in the gloaming. When the light had finally come up we drove back to our picnic site of yesterday by Lembert Dome to get make some breakfast and coffee. As a luxury we had bought ourse...

The afternoon was getting long in the tooth when we arrived back from our Gaylor Lakes walk. We asked the ranger at the Park entrance where would be the best place to go for some sunset views and he said to go back to the Toluomne Meadows which we had been criss crossing all afternoon. I had wanted to photograph the sun going down behind the Cathedral Range but it was very disappointing, the sky remaining a dull yellow until it got completely dark. However, turning round I saw the Dana- Gibbs range lit a glowing red. These high mountains, Dana is 13,035 ft, are of different stock to the granite of Yosemite and have a red hue anyway and the sun was bringing out the best in them. The first picture is taken from near the Park entrance and the others from the meadows by the Toluomne River. It is getting progressively darker. I had a polariser on for the first shot and it has done something rather strange to the sky, but I quite like the effect. After the light had gone...

Having obtained petrol we thought a spot of lunch was in order, which we shared with glossy bright eyed Brewers blackbirds.  We had parked in a picnic spot in the meadows and after lunch walked a little way to see some soda springs which just bubble up from the ground. They are not hot but taste just like Vichy water. They stain the earth red and give strange greens to the Toluomne river, presumably from alga growth. Next to the springs are a number of wooden buildings. Around a portion of the springs an open topped shack was put up by John Baptiste Lembert who grazed goats in this area from 1885. John Muir liked to camp here and it was to this location he brought the magazine editor Robert Johnson to see the damage done by the sheep to the meadows. It was a meeting that was to bring about the inclusion of the large section surrounding the Tioga Road into Yosemite National Park. The wooden McCauley cabin was used by the Sierra Club until 1973 and the Parson...