Fernanda & Karl - Road Trip, Day 19 -- Website by Now Interactive Solutions

Photos

Newest Set:

Babs and Pia
10/18/24

Wiebke's visit
09/27/24

Brazil 2024 - Fernanda
09/06/24

Miska 2024 - June
06/01/24

Miska 2024 - May
05/01/24

Miska 2024 - April
04/01/24

Miska 2024 - March
03/01/24

Miska 2024 - February
02/01/24

Miska 2024 - January
01/01/24

Miska - December
12/01/23

Miska - November
11/01/23

Miska - October
10/01/23

Miska 2023 - September
09/01/23

Miska 2023 - August
08/09/23

India and Taj Mahal 2023
03/18/23

Germany (and Iceland) 2022
12/01/22

Brasil 2022 - after BH
10/18/22

Brazil 2022
10/07/22

Bathroom in the Annex
11/13/20

2020 Summer and Fall and Winter in the Pandemic
08/23/20

Long Island 2020
07/24/20

Balcony Garden
05/05/20

Baltimore 2020
02/09/20

Train show at the NY Botanical Gardens
12/07/19

Mohonk - Winter Wonderland
12/04/19

Oktoberfest 2019
10/06/19

Cool pictures of our apartment
10/06/19

Burle Max at NY Botanical Gardens
09/14/19

Papai In Memoriam
08/04/19

Aussie Parents' Visit
05/15/19

A New Car!
04/24/19

San Francisco
02/10/19

Iceland Five-O
01/26/19

Twin Cities
10/12/18

Oktoberfest 2018
10/07/18

Terceira
09/11/18

Ferry to Terceira
09/10/18

São Jorge
09/07/18

Pico
09/05/18

Faial
09/03/18

São Miguel
08/29/18

Wander Lucio's Visit - 2018
07/03/18

Summer 2018
06/30/18

Brunch Harbor Sail
06/17/18

Deutschland 2018 (Karl)
03/29/18

Iceland 2018 (Karl)
03/20/18

Brasil 2018 (Fernanda)
03/17/18

Karl's Singing Birthday
01/26/18

Miami
01/19/18

Gørill
01/01/18

New Bathroom II!
10/24/17

Chicago
10/13/17

Oktoberfest XI
10/08/17

Apocalipse
08/22/17

Oregon!
08/16/17

Madison, CT
07/10/17

Diane's Wedding, observed
06/11/17

Brasil 2017 (Fernanda)
03/24/17

Christmas 2016
12/24/16

New Bathroom!
11/01/16

Staycation in Brooklyn
10/15/16

Oktoberfest X
10/09/16

Vermont
09/18/16

Brasil 2016
08/10/16

Italy 2016 (Karl)
07/27/16

Berlin 2016
06/11/16

Nashville
01/21/16

Germany, 2015
11/26/15

Iceland
11/20/15

Cape Cod
10/18/15

Oktoberfest 2015
09/27/15

Lunar Eclipse - "Blood Moon"
09/27/15

Summer 2015
07/18/15

Hawk and other animals
07/17/15

Berlin
04/01/15

The Faroe Islands
03/20/15

Copenhagen
03/19/15

Christmas at the New Place (2014)
12/24/14

Danube River Cruise (Karl)
11/18/14

Wilmington & Western Railroad, 2014
11/02/14

The Berkshires
10/18/14

Oktoberfest 2014 - Executive House
10/05/14

2014 Brasil - World Cup
06/24/14

Longwood Gardens - thank you RuthAnn!
04/26/14

California, 2014
02/19/14

Thanksgiving 2013
11/28/13

Berlin, Tante Wiebke (Karl)
11/24/13

Iceland, 2013 (Karl)
11/20/13

Through the Looking Glass with Karl in Europe
11/18/13

Vermont 2013
11/01/13

Wilmington & Western Railroad Steam Engine Train Ride
10/20/13

Oktoberfest 2013
10/05/13

Brasil 2013 (Fernanda)
05/25/13

Intrepid
05/04/13

Road Trip South
03/24/13

Another German Christmas (2012)
12/24/12

Hurricane Sandy
10/29/12

Oktoberfest in our Apartment 2012
09/30/12

Air Show, Tough Kennamon, PA
08/25/12

Greece, Islands, 2012: Sifnos
07/20/12

Athens
07/19/12

IRF Reunion
06/23/12

Vermont, 2012
04/08/12

Our Tulip Blooms
03/25/12

Party for Karl's 43rd Birthday
01/28/12

Christmas 2011 at Mt. Snow
12/24/11

5th annual Oktoberfest in our Apartment!
10/01/11

Guests, 2011
09/12/11

Karl's Father in 2011
09/10/11

Misc. grab-bag, 2011
08/18/11

Brasil 2011
07/15/11

Vermont, "Spring" 2011
04/23/11

Nidhi and Arvind's Bangle Ceremony
03/27/11

Karl's 42nd Birtday (observed)
01/29/11

Winter Vacation with Missy and Alex
01/15/11

Brasil 2010
10/04/10

Oktoberfest 2010, Hackensack
09/25/10

Governor's Island, NYC
09/19/10

Karl's family
09/12/10

Vermont
03/26/10

Skiing Hunter Mt. 2010
02/14/10

Karl celebrates turning 41
01/30/10

Babs visits
01/17/10

New Year's Eve
12/31/09

Halloween/Thanksgiving 2009
11/26/09

Oktoberfest 2009, Hackensack
10/03/09

2009 at the pool!
08/18/09

Brú na Bóinne
08/08/09

Galway
08/04/09

Northern Ireland
07/30/09

Donegal
07/24/09

Dublin, etc.
07/18/09

2009 with the Urano family
05/23/09

Brasil 2009
04/10/09

Weihnachten, 2008
12/24/08

Syncsort Xmas Party 2008
12/15/08

Family visits: Karl's parents, uncle, and cousin
11/22/08

Vania's Visit
11/15/08

Marden's visit
11/08/08

Autumn hiking, Ramapo, NJ
10/18/08

Oktoberfest 2008, Hackensack
10/04/08

Labor Day Pool Party
08/31/08

Philharmonic in the Park (yet again)
06/24/08

Fernanda's Parents Come to Visit
06/02/08

Memorial Day Weekend in CT with Missy
05/26/08

Fernanda's Birthday Party, 2008
05/17/08

Katja comes to visit!
04/20/08

Spring 2008
04/12/08

Nikhil's Karaoke Birthday Bar Party
04/05/08

Cross-country Skiing in New England
02/09/08

Karl's Birthday Party 2008
01/26/08

Xmas 2007
12/24/07

Syncsort Xmas 2007
12/08/07

Oktoberfest in our Apartment
10/06/07

Crash!
09/15/07

Nebraska, Iowa
09/13/07

Wyoming, Nebraska, Blow-out
09/12/07

Nevada, Utah, Wyoming
09/11/07

California, Nevada
09/10/07

San Francisco
09/09/07

San Francisco, Sausalito, Mill Valley, Tiberon
09/08/07

San Francisco
09/07/07

Yosemite to San Francisco
09/06/07

Yosemite
09/05/07

Sequoia, Kings Canyon National Parks
09/04/07

Nevada, Death Valley, California
09/03/07

Arizona, Nevada
09/02/07

Arizona
09/01/07

Grand Canyon
08/31/07

Utah, Grand Canyon
08/30/07

Canyonlands
08/29/07

Arches National Park
08/28/07

Utah
08/27/07

Wyoming, Idaho, Utah
08/26/07

Yellowstone, Grand Tetons
08/25/07

Yellowstone
08/24/07

Wyoming, Montana, Yellowstone
08/23/07

South Dakota, Wyoming
08/22/07

South Dakota
08/21/07

Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota
08/20/07

Ohio to Chicago
08/19/07

Pennsylvania to Ohio
08/18/07

5th Brazilian Film Festival, NY
08/08/07

Fernanda's Birthday Party 2007
05/19/07

Paris
03/31/07

Amsterdam
03/30/07

Volendam
03/29/07

Antwerp
03/28/07

Vernon
03/26/07

Château Gaillard
03/26/07

Château de Versailles
03/25/07

Ski Trip 2007 -- Mount Snow
02/17/07

Karl's Birthday Party
01/27/07

Weihnachtsfeier
12/24/06

Syncsort Xmas Party 2006
12/09/06

New Car!
11/28/06

Random New York
11/05/06

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
10/24/06

Wander Lucio & Christy
10/20/06

Oktoberfest at Bear Mountain
10/08/06

New England
09/30/06

Barbeque with John and Petya
09/03/06

Sabira's Birthday Party
08/12/06

Allegra's Birthday Party
07/30/06

Opera in the Park
07/18/06

At the Beach
07/16/06

Ante Syncsort Group Dinner
07/14/06

Word Cup, USA
07/09/06

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, once more
07/08/06

Brasil 2006, Ceará: Fortaleza, Jericoacoara
06/17/06

Brasil 2006, Belo Horizonte
06/10/06

Karl's & Parents
06/04/06

Happy Birthday Pool Party!
05/19/06

Cherry Blossom Festival, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens
04/29/06

Planting a Garden
04/09/06

Fixing Up the Car
04/09/06

At the Ballet with AFS
04/06/06

Alana
04/02/06

Various Times at Sean & Cecilia's
03/05/06

Skiing, 2006 - Hunter Mountain
02/18/06

Karl's Birthday (observed (by some))
01/25/06

Bente's Visit
01/10/06

Xmas Party 2005
12/12/05

Ballooning in Lancaster, PA
11/05/05

Segovia, Spain
10/14/05

Toledo, Spain
10/13/05

Madrid, Spain
10/12/05

Sevilla, Spain
10/10/05

Évora, Tavira, and the Road to Spain...
10/06/05

Porto, Portugal
10/04/05

Eclipse -- Bragança, Portugal
10/03/05

Coimbra and Conimbriga, Portugal
10/01/05

Nazaré and Obidos, Portugal
09/28/05

Lisboa and Sintra, Portugal
09/24/05

Wander Lucio and Christy's Visit
09/18/05

Dinner at Sean and Cecilia's
08/13/05

At the Beach
08/06/05

Pool Minders
07/30/05

From Ivy's Beach to Ivy's Party
07/23/05

Opera in the Park for Allegra's Birthday
07/19/05

Five Year Anniversary Cruise
07/17/05

Social Butterflies
07/16/05

Social Pictures
07/14/05

Central Park Summer Stage
07/09/05

4th of July, 2005
07/04/05

A Day on the River
06/25/05

An Opera in the Park
06/14/05

Memorial Day, 2005
05/30/05

Scooting in NJ Liberty State Park
05/29/05

Scooting to Ashes & Snow
05/28/05

Fernanda's Birthday Party, 2005
05/20/05

Juliana & Cristiano
05/15/05

Nidhi & Arvind's Wedding (observed)
05/07/05

Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival), Brooklyn Botanic Garden
04/30/05

Brasil, 2005
04/18/05

About Town
03/01/05

At Home
02/28/05

The Gates in Central Park
02/13/05

Winter, 2005
01/23/05

A New Year
01/01/05

Christmas 2004
12/25/04

Syncsort Xmas Party 2004
12/21/04

More random
12/20/04

Buraco night
12/19/04

Thanksgiving 2004
11/25/04

Z
10/31/04

AFS NYC Zoo trip
10/30/04

Pumkin Pickin'
10/23/04

Old Short Hills
10/03/04

Whirling dervishes
09/24/04

Random Fall 2004
09/22/04

Saroj's birthday
09/20/04

Pool Party!
08/22/04

Allegra's Party
07/17/04

Family
07/15/04

Guests
07/11/04

Summer 2004 Misc II
07/01/04

Beach 2004
07/01/04

Opera in Central Park
06/16/04

Summer 2004 Misc
06/01/04

Brasil 2004, the rest
05/31/04

Brasil 2004, part 3
05/29/04

Brasil 2004, continued
05/20/04

Fernanda's Birthday, Observed
05/15/04

Brasil, 2004
05/14/04

Highlights of Holi
03/12/04

Holi - Full Set
03/09/04

New Kitchen
02/09/04

Xmas 2003
12/24/03

Wanessa's Wisit
12/16/03

Diwali
10/24/03

Random
10/04/03

Misc Dinners, Parties, 2002, 2003
09/16/03

Fernanda's Very Old Family Photos
09/04/03

Cristiano's Visit
07/15/03

Fernanda's Birthday Party
05/18/03

Europe 2003
04/25/03

Oz 1998
08/01/98

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Road Trip, Day 19

Swimming in Yosemite
(Click to view)

Yosemite

My biggest anticipated park on our trip, and probably our last, has also turned out to be the most disappointing! Let me explain: Yosemite the physical location is absolutely beautiful; Yosemite the National Park is verging on disaster. Maybe that's too strong a word, since I could imagine much worse, but of all the National Parks we've visited, Yosemite has been the worst. The idiots responsible for some of the more inane things at the Grand Canyon obviously took post graduate courses here at Yosemite.

Let's start with the maps. They are useless. Even more so than at the Grand Canyon. At the entrance the surly ranger hands you a huge map of the park. Most of the park is actually back country trails, only about a quarter of it has roads through it; this map is of the whole park, but disclaims itself of any use for trails, saying if you are intending to hike the trails, you'd better get a real map. So what's the point of 3/4 of this map? The few roads in the park on the map are not marked with route numbers, even though throughout the park, the roads are primarily referred to by route number. So you're driving along, and along comes a sign advising you that 41 is to the left, 140 to the right, and 120 is straight ahead, and the map is of no help whatsoever. It also claims to have a magnified view of certain areas on the back; the back, needless to say, is totally blank.

The road layout is confusing enough to make the Grand Canyon jealous, with one-way loops circling back on each other, diverging at the least expected places, and doubling back necessary to get to certain locations. And no thought or planning, or at least no coordination among the various committees and bureaucrats responsible, is in evidence for the placement of parking lots and shuttle bus stops and major attractions. As for communicating information about major attractions, forget about it. The park staff certainly did. Mirror Lake is dry. Yosemite Falls don't. Maybe locals who come every weekend know that this is the dry season (I'm presuming) and of course the falls and lakes and rivers are dry, but how about a half-hearted attempt to inform the poor out of town tourist traveling across the continent what to expect today at Yosemite. Don't bother with the Yosemite Falls, or even the Bridalveil Falls, and certainly don't invest time walking down the trail to Mirror Lake unless you like sand (or want to see bears...). Certainly it could be seasonally included in the shuttle bus stop announcements. But the shuttle bus steering subcommittee must be an impenetrable bureaucratic mess, where it is impossible to get even the most obvious changes pushed through, or else there is no explanation for why, when the road ends for non-shuttle bus traffic and there is a huge parking lot, there is not also a shuttle bus stop right at this parking lot. The bus stop route was set in stone, and stop number 15 a quarter mile away is the closest and that's plenty good enough. It's almost like they don't want people using the public transportation. And the bus doesn't really go anywhere useful that it's much worth it to not just walk in the first place. Take our specific example, for example:

Not knowing any better, we see the signs for Mirror Lake, and having read of its beauty in our guide book, we decide, hey, let's go there! So we drive down the road following the sign, (because it's not on the map), but suddenly the road is closed to all but shuttle bus traffic, we have to turn off to the parking lot. So we do, we park, we walk out to nearby Happy Isles, scouting the area, decide it's good, go back to the car to pack a picnic and catch the shuttle bus to Mirror Lake. So we go to the entrance of the parking lot and try to flag down the passing bus, whose driver sternly wags his finger at us and blows by. We have to either walk up the road a quarter mile to the previous stop, or walk back down to the Happy Isles stop, where we just came from. OK, so we are on the bus, the Mirror Lake stop, after waiting at the Happy Isles stop for 5 or 10 minutes, is a quarter of a mile down the road from the Happy Isle stop, and just deposits you at the foot of the Mirror Lake trail. I say "trail", but it is in fact a fully paved road, obviously you used to be able to drive here, but they shut it down. Now, I'm all for that, but since the road is already in place, why not have the shuttle bus go up it? I'm sure it's because I just don't understand the intricate, complicated details involved in apportioning road use -- I certainly can't understand why the single-gear rental bikes are prohibited -- not suggested or advised, but prohibited, from going up the slight incline on this same road toward the end. Non-rental bikes aren't so prohibited. Is it because they only have one gear? Well, tell me I probably won't want to do the hill, but prohibit me? Anyway, it's all moot because after all this, the Lake is nothing but sand. Could the driver have mentioned this when she felt compelled to interrupt the recorded stop announcement with her own saying exactly the same thing, only in accented English? Maybe this is why the bus doesn't go up the road, because they know it isn't worth it.

What it comes down to is, Yosemite is a park to be in, not to see; ignore as best you can the bad administrative attempts to reign the place in,and just go out and sit and enjoy the view, feel the breeze and the sun, pretend this is just nature as it's always been, there are no humans trying to control it. Throw out the maps, don't expect to see any sites, just wonder at what you see in front of you. It's a great park with lousy administration.

Maybe it's all an intentional plot to discourage car visitors of whom there are too many. (Or so they claim; after witnessing their incompetence first hand, much as I am intrinsically inclined to subscribe to this view, I have to say I have my doubts: maybe it's just that they are too incompetent to handle the traffic they get.) This is the only park I've seen where they check you leaving as well as entering to make sure you paid your fee. Poor service forced to aggressively pursue fees to keep the bottom line even?

Anyway, once we finally gave up on the Park, and just decided to enjoy the park, we had a pretty good time. We spent the afternoon relaxing at a beach on the river (not on any maps) -- sandy banks, deep clear water, incredible surroundings. This was after our close encounter with the bear, so maybe a cleansing adrenaline rush helped.

Yes, the bear: Fernanda finally had her encounter! After the disastrous Mirror Lake expedition, we just sat on a stump to eat our sandwiches, because we were getting hungry on top of our frustration. At first we attracted a squirrel, who was totally unshy and quite aggressive. Fighting him off, we noticed he had reinforcements, and suddenly four or five squirrels were rushing us from all sides, and would not be shooed. At the height of this assault, the people down the trail suddenly indicated there was a bear across the field. I looked up, and there was a bear, making a bee-line towards us. Gathering up our sandwiches and telling Fernanda to put her food in the backpack immediately, we got up and retreated as I zipped up all our food. Fernanda didn't see the bear at first. Then she saw it, but I didn't, now that I had the camera in hand.

We backed down the trail a bit, and warned some other people walking down. While we were telling one set, who turned out to be Brazilian, another couple walked past, and when we saw them down the trail and called out to them, they either didn't hear us or ignored us, till suddenly they turned a corner and suddenly saw the bear -- you could see the blood drain from them -- and they came back.. There was also a cub I saw come running across from the other direction. All this too fast of course to get a picture. And it's not like you want to hang around lining up a shot.

So, we saw a bear. This was the breakthrough, I think, that finally made us realign our thinking, give up on the Park, and just enjoy nature where we were. Nothing like a bear to set you straight. We had a nice swim, a nice drive, walked down a field in the sunset.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow as we try again. Then it's off to San Fransisco!

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Previous Entries

:-(
06/19/21

Açores
08/29/18

Our New Bathroom Saga
11/17/16

Europe 2015
03/16/15

The Berkshires
10/18/14

Road Trip South
03/23/13

Greece!
07/26/12

Our Trip to Ireland
08/09/09

Google Map of our Trip
09/17/07