Let's start at the beginning, packing. They were predicting weather from 20's to 70's. Packed wide range of clothing. I grabbed two cameras, and a video camera. I got every camera battery I owned, flash gun, tripod, monopod, two camera bags, flash cards, bag full of AA batteries and set it all aside. The aside thing was the problem. When we returned from Yosemite the tripod, monopod, and flash cards were still setting aside. I forgot them. We got most of the way there before I discovered the mistake.
Folks I can overcome a lot of problems. I can get by without tripods and monopods. I consider myself resourceful, but lack of flash cards renders a camera useless. BUt, Lou fed Best Buy into the GPS and it told us exactly how to get there. No sooner than Lou had finished doing it than that little voice said turn right. Lou was doing about 65 on an interstate in the outside lane. We watched as the exit disappeared, and listened as that infernal machine said recalculating. Anyway I got the needed cards, and lost about an hour.
As we got closer our anticipation grew. The road became crooked and the mountains we could see had snow on them. It was not long before there was snow on the side of the road. There were more and more turns on the road. The snow got deeper. We traveled on and the snow got deeper. Then there was the sign: Chains Needed. Now Lou and I heard of people needing food, clothing but Chains? Just then I looked out the window on my side of the car and all I could see was snow. It had to have been 3 feet at least. We were committed and continued on. We now also knew why the sign was there. Other drivers before us had found themselves in the same predicament and had created the sign asking others who had chains to share. THis only lasted for a short time before it got worse. OK I am exaggerating. THe road did stay clear, but you should see the snow removal removal equipment. Those machines could clean snow from the antarctic. It was at least 3 foot of snow in places.
Finally we turned a corner, went through a tunnel and :
f8, 1/500, ISO 100
SO I start through my lenses, and knew instantly that I needed a tripod. I was laying in a puddle resting my camera on rock wall to hold it steady. From this point forward we were treated to beauty everywhere we looked.
f8, 1/500, ISO 100
Lou and I have collected waterfalls for years and this was a treat. We could hardly wait to get settled, and start some serious explorations. We registered at Curry Village and headed to our tent cabin. I did not know it at the time but everywhere in the park they give the Yosemite temp and the Curry Village temp. Curry is always colder by about 10 degrees. There is a considerable difference between 30 and 20. It is colder. I'm getting ahead of my story though. Let me show you our tent cabin.
Now let me get back to the cold. It was cold in those tents there was no heat. We slept in pants, long johns, socks, t-shirt, shirt, and sweat shirt, sleeping bags with liners and still froze.
By the way did you see the snow next to the tent, and those puddles actually had large mouth bass in them. THe green box next to the door was a bear box.
Oh noo!! I'm not kidding.
f5.6, 1/640, ISO 400
The next day we bought a tripod and sleeping bags. THe bags kept us pretty warm, and the tripod sucked. It did serve the purpose.
The next morning we got our first treat:
f5.6, 1/1250, ISO 200
Then another
f18, 1/50, ISO 100
Then another
F9, 320, ISO 100
One of Lou and I
f5.6, 320, ISO 800
Well anyway we had a great time, and we have a bunch of photographs, new sleeping bags, a tripod that sucks, and great memories in spite of the cold. Beauty just seems to over come discomfort. You will have to wait to see more pics until I up date the web site.
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