Report on Yosemite Valley today

[John Kasaian]

The dogwood blossoms have faded. They are still nice higher up though.
Yosemite Falls are cooking pretty good right, now as is Bridalveil.
No crowds while we were there (9:00AM-4:30PM)
All this will change Memorial Day weekend, of course!:rolleyes:
The new admission fees being extorted in order to get into your park are criminal, IMHO.

[Bill Burk]

Can you still drive through for free after dark?

[John Kasaian]

Can you still drive through for free after dark?
I don't know--I'd suppose so if it's really late. I just obtained my geezer pass --- a senior lifetime pass for all National Parks for ten bucks. Normal admission is sure steep with the new price schedule. Yeah, extortion. That's the word.

[Drew Wiley]

They're pretty good at spotting that slip-thru trick nowadays. They'll either get you on the way out or check for you illegally camping, unless you have already driven clear thru the Park in the wee hours. I've got my Geezer Pass anyway, but at the moment am more concerned about the mosquito forecast up high, since the road passes will be open soon.

[dasBlute]

the pass was open as of last week, good light on the granite.

[John Kasaian]

They're pretty good at spotting that slip-thru trick nowadays. They'll either get you on the way out or check for you illegally camping, unless you have already driven clear thru the Park in the wee hours. I've got my Geezer Pass anyway, but at the moment am more concerned about the mosquito forecast up high, since the road passes will be open soon.
I can report that we encountered no skeeters in the Valley, nor Wawona. Kind of eerie, really.

[Drew Wiley]

I'm lookin for an early season altitude tune-up weekend hike, maybe up Virginia Lks, maybe above Tioga, or maybe just east to Carson-Iceberg. Recovering from
a nasty bout of shingles and need to get back in shape.

[John Kasaian]

I'm lookin for an early season altitude tune-up weekend hike, maybe up Virginia Lks, maybe above Tioga, or maybe just east to Carson-Iceberg. Recovering from
a nasty bout of shingles and need to get back in shape.
OUCH! My condolences. Shingles are no fun!

[Vaughn]

The week before Memorial Weekend has always been a nice time for the Valley -- calm before the storm!

It was $30 to get in a few weeks ago. I had 4 teenagers with me. If I had taken them to the movies instead it would have cost more! And since I drove the kids to Santa Cruz first to check the campus out, had a couple motel nights, had to feed them, etc, the trip cost about $1200 for the week (about 1100 miles). So the entrance fee was a very small percentage of my costs. Now the 4 nights camping in the Valley took a bigger bite! But all-in-all, an excellent return for my bucks. A free shuttle system, well maintained trails, clean bathrooms, roads in good shape, and still the same free wake-up service in the campgrounds (garbarge truck).

Yes, Yosemite Valley can be a bit of an amusement park at times (with Half Dome being the "E-ticket" ride), but it keeps the pests out of the wilderness! That just adds to its value!

[Preston]

Sounds like an interesting and fun time, Vaughn!

Just a note for you Sierra junkies...Tioga, Sonora, and Ebbets passes are currently closed due to snow. NWS forecasts are calling for chances of snow up high into the next week. As of this writing, there's been no info on when the passes might open. If I hear anything, I'll holler.

I sure am glad I have my multi-agency Geezer pass! That little card has saved me a bundle!

--P

[Vaughn]

Preston -- no room in the van for the 11x14 or the 8x10! Might have squeezed in the 5x7, but just decided to have fun and ran a lot of rolls of TMax400 through the Rolleicord while wandering around the corners of the Valley.

Still have a year and a couple months to wait for my old geezer pass!

[Preston]

According to Caltrans and YNP today, Sonora and Tioga passes are open.

The weather in our part of the Sierra is still unsettled, so be sure to check that these roads are open before you head up.

--P

[Wayne]

How's the wingsuit action?

[dsphotog]

How's the wingsuit action?

Ooooh... Too soon.

[Drew Wiley]

One more reason to stop turning National Parks into amusement theme parks, though in this case the amusement part of it ended pretty quickly. My nephew once had to rescue one of these Darwin Award types from the face of Half Dome. That person was damn lucky someone was already on the face with ropes when his wings barely snagged a tiny tree halfway down the face. Still, with a broken hip and broken ribs, and a six-hour rescue, it couldn't have been exactly fun. For the rest of us who are mere taxpayers, that rescue only cost forty or fifty thousand dollars. But at least the dude lived to illegally jump again somewhere.

[Michael Cienfuegos]

One more reason to stop turning National Parks into amusement theme parks, though in this case the amusement part of it ended pretty quickly. My nephew once had to rescue one of these Darwin Award types from the face of Half Dome. That person was damn lucky someone was already on the face with ropes when his wings barely snagged a tiny tree halfway down the face. Still, with a broken hip and broken ribs, and a six-hour rescue, it couldn't have been exactly fun. For the rest of us who are mere taxpayers, that rescue only cost forty or fifty thousand dollars. But at least the dude lived to illegally jump again somewhere.

It serves them right to go "SPLAT!", but as you say, someone has to pick up the tab. If they survive they should be jailed, but I guess that the bleeding hearts would cry foul.


m

[Drew Wiley]

Since it's illegal, they would have to pick up the cost of rescue. Picking them up with a vacuum cleaner comes fully at tax-payer expense. But the park kinds turns a blind eye to some of these extreme sports types, because in this case, they were climbers who themselves sometimes helped with rescues. I'm personally more concerned when climbers and jumpers start damaging natural features, like giving rope burns to sensitive natural arches or towers while rappelling or bunji-jumping from them. Plus I just don't like hiking to some place like that just to encounter the boom box crowd. The key individual involved in this accident was memorialized in the SF paper with a picture of him free-climbing Delicate Arch in Utah. Somehow the term "delicate" and having someone using it as a climbing gym and leaving chalk and shoe scuffs all over it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Reminds me of what Fatali did there.

[John Kasaian]

I'm stuck this next week with a bad back. When I'm out of cyclobenzaprine, I'm out of here(I hope!)

[Drew Wiley]

Sorry to hear that, John. I'm down to the last of my big shingles scabs but otherwise to start tackling hills again. Just depends on what the light is doing tomorrow. The forecast said it was going to warm up substantially today, but it seems to be the coldest day of the year so far, so hard to say how far the fog will be drawn inland over Pt Reyes tomorrow. I've pretty much gotta flip a coin and guess whether the 8x10 or 4x5 will be most appropriate for the day. Will have a wonderful day regardless. My joints would like a little sunshine, but my camera would love another foggy softbox day. Normally I'll get about two hours of fog, lose it for awhile heading uphill, then hit it again on the ridgetops. Will know better when I visually assess the fog front in the morning while crossing the Richmond Bridge into Marin. That's when I finalize my exact hiking destination. The pack wt actually helps my back, but the lifting here at work doesn't. My helper is gone today and they trying to hire another one. So I work only so long in the cold, then get lazy for a break, like right now.

[appletree]

I have yet to go and really want to. I would love to go when there is snow on the ground. Although I hear sometimes the park is closed or much is inaccessible during this time, due to safety concerns...people getting hurt over the years. I would no doubt track down a partner and being an Eagle Scout and camping my whole life would be wise. Then again I fear I travel in October or something and it all be closed. Likewise in the Feb-Apr time. Is this in fact true or did I hear wrong?

Someone also told me if I can find an older map, often times the trails will still exist but are off the "beaten-path". Then again...one assumes when traveling the beaten path, is well, beaten for a reason.

[Drew Wiley]

You can almost always get into Yosemite Valley from the west. Only Tioga Pass, which is about 10,000 ft high, is formally closed for winter. Once in awhile there
will be a deep enough snowfall in Dec or Jan which will require tire chains to drive into the Valley. These kinds of storms produce those famous wintery postcardy scenes which photographers seem to covet. Under such circumstances it really helps to be staying in the Valley. But accommodations are generally easy to get in winter. Snowshoes can be nice to have too, if you are lucky enough to get a deep powder snow. Therefore you need to distinguish between Yosemite Valley itself, which is relatively low altitude, from the much wider extent for higher backcountry comprising the greater Park itself. Only one road leads thru there, which is generally closed between Nov and June (though this year is much drier than normal). There are plenty of places where one can indeed get completely away from even trails; but this kind of travel requires gear and experience, just like all mountain backpacking; and believe me, plenty of boy scouts
have gotten killed in these mtns over the years. If you ever do such a thing, it's important to go with someone who knows what they're doing. The mtns at higher elevations can be pretty temperamental all year round. October is actually a beautiful uncrowded time in general. The waterfalls won't be running much,
but there is generally wonderful fall color everywhere, and Tioga Pass is generally still open. Always always always have warm gear and a sleeping bag in a
car even when traveling paved roads in the West, along with extra food and water. Or if you are hiking around at high altitude even in summer, always have
a raincoat and sweater. Storms can move in remarkably fast.

[appletree]

Thanks for all the great information Drew. Much appreciated and yes, I tend to be too prepared...if there is such a thing. That said good point about not just going with a buddy, but someone that actually knows the area. As well as snowshoes. I wanted to visit someone up in Oregon, and he suggested I purchase crampons.

Would a 7 day trip be sufficient? Not too short, not too long? Of course one could spend a lifetime at most places, but not always reasonable.

[Drew Wiley]

Just depends on what you want to do and when, and on your fitness. It takes a few days just to acclimate to high altitude. So there's quite a difference between
dayhiking from the road, or even backpacking popular trails, and heading out to the boonies. There are sections of the Park where you could probably walk for a
week without seeing another person. Then there are other trails where you might get trampled to death from all the people. As per logistics, high passes and lightning storms always need to be carefully timed. So a week would be fine if you plan to see 1/10th of 1% of what's there. One lifetime won't do. And remember that that whole Park is only a small piece of the entire range. But if you just want to do a car thing, then a few days in a Valley itself off-season would be nice, allowing extra days to drive up toward the Pass and around the backside some, to Mono Lk etc. Don't get us started, or you'll get about five hundred recommendations of where to go and what to do - all valid. I've taken hundreds of backpack trips in the Sierra and haven't even begun to see certain parts of it. My own philosophy is that it's far more rewarding to spend some quality time in a given area than to try rushing around bagging all the mandatory
scenic turnouts along with the rest of the mob.

[appletree]

Oh, I agree. Quality not quantity. Thanks again for the advice. And having going up to Colorado, Fairplay, for many (10+ years) summers, I know it is challenging. And still will be, living in Texas it is not something I am used to.

Appreciate the advice and I will do some research on the subject.

[Drew Wiley]

The biggest risk in terms of spoiling a trip on an extreme drought year like this one is the distinct possibility of forest fires. The official Park/Gov websites all have
good updates on road and fire conditions. Whenever I have a week or two off, I always have a "Plan B" and "Plan C" destintation. And fires can start lower down
with all the smoke siphoning up the canyons into the high country. So, for example, if Yosemite gets smoked out, Kings Canyon and Sequoia aren't that far away
as an alternative from the West. Or from the east, there are all kinds of high country alternatives which easily rival anything in Yosemite. Last Sept I didn't even
try and opted for the Wind Rivers in Wyoming instead. When I returned home over Tioga Pass the smoke was so bad you'd couldn't even see the domes adjacent
to the road. The Valley itself, way down there, can be downright hot and smoggy in summer, with a population of around 30,000 people. October is much nicer,
but also can be downright nippy in the high country. I've done plenty of October backpacking, but under those circumstances am equipped more like winter travel. I've been in serious blizzards every month of the year in the Sierra except July. Of course, I've also sought out bad weather for the photographic opportunities.

[John Kasaian]

In the winter, be sure to have tire chains or cables in your vehicle.

[Greg Miller]

The key individual involved in this accident was memorialized in the SF paper with a picture of him free-climbing Delicate Arch in Utah. Somehow the term "delicate" and having someone using it as a climbing gym and leaving chalk and shoe scuffs all over it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Reminds me of what Fatali did there.

Then you'll be pleased to know that he died in a wing suit jump in Yosemite on May 16.

[Drew Wiley]

If you were following this, it's what everyone has known all along. I don't take pleasure in anyone's death. But tempting fate is an understatement. And like I related earlier, one of my own family members along with a good friend once risked their own lives rescuing one of these types that ended up mangled halfway
down a Yosemite wall. It not an inert sport.

[Sirius Glass]

I agree with Drew. Besides one does not need a parachute or wings for that kind of thrill, take a look at the title above my avatar.

[Greg Miller]

If you were following this, it's what everyone has known all along. I don't take pleasure in anyone's death. But tempting fate is an understatement. And like I related earlier, one of my own family members along with a good friend once risked their own lives rescuing one of these types that ended up mangled halfway
down a Yosemite wall. It not an inert sport.

Other than the word "memorialized" there's no indication of anyone talking about an actual death. There's talk about a near death some nebulous amount of time ago. So I'm not real sure what you mean by "If you were following this, it's what everyone has known all along.". I doubt few people outside the central California area, or climbers, who were reading this were aware of a wing suit death in May or who it was.

[Drew Wiley]

It can get pretty sick, macabre. We once hired on ole gal as a cashier who happened to have also been someone who hung around Camp 4 way back in the early
days of its climbing infamy. I stopped a moment to chat with her right when my nephew, who was about 17, walked in the door right after one of his El Cap climbs. He showed us an interesting bone and asked how on earth some animal could have managed to climb way up onto the ledge where he found it. I recognized the skull suture pattern and told him it was no animal. He turned kinda pale at that point. But it got worse. The lil old lady personally knew the person who splattered there. Having climbed the monolith, this guy decided on about a 2000 ft rappel back down, which would have been about ten rope lengths, based on his 200 ft rope. But he never tied off on the end. So that equated to an 1800 ft free-fall with a few messy bounces. In the typical sick humor of the climbing genre, this incident has been repeatedly recited how the individual established a speed descent record of El Capitan which has been equaled but never surpassed. I don't know what happened to the bit of skullcap, but I never saw it again, thank goodness.

[cowanw]

CBC, National Post, BBC all covered it.

[Drew Wiley]

There were three batwing deaths in two months. The incident at Taft Point in Yosemite Valley involved two individuals who might have somehow tripped up each
other mid-flight, since they were attempting a synchronized dive. NG has also done fairly recent TV features on this as well as a magazine article. In the latter case, I believe every individual featured in the story was dead by the time this was actually published. Real bats have had a lot more time to work out the details,
though nobody knows how many millions of them died in the prototyping phase.

[Greg Miller]

CBC, National Post, BBC all covered it.

Yes, it was covered by many media outlets. But 95% of of what gets covered in the media these days get's ignored. I bet if you polled random people on the street, less than 0.1% of them would have any recollection of this. I noticed it because I'm a climber and I'm very aware of his various adventures. The day he died I was explaining to a date the crazy stuff he did and that he probably didn't have much of a life expectancy. Hopefully guys like Alex Honnold will change their minds while there is still time.

[smithdoor]

Try hot today in the upper 90's

Dave

[Drew Wiley]

Greg - here in Calif pretty much anything significant to Yosemite hits the news, and of course Calif dominates news of the West in general, given the financial and political clout of the state, whether people elsewhere like it or not. But we've also heard coverage of the plans to develop the upper end of the Grand Canyon with a tram and huge hotel complex, right down in the canyon at the confluence of the Little Colorado. Hard to imagine anything that abominable is even possible, but some of the tribe are pushing for it. Just goes to show how much that we take for granted as protected really isn't if there is a lapse in vigilance. But people are already up in arms over this, including the Park Service itself. With Yosemite Valley, it's more a risk of becoming an anything-goes three-ring-circus theme park. One more reason to either stick to the high country or visit the Valley off-season.

[Greg Miller]

Greg - here in Calif pretty much anything significant to Yosemite hits the news, and of course Calif dominates news of the West in general, given the financial and political clout of the state, whether people elsewhere like it or not. But we've also heard coverage of the plans to develop the upper end of the Grand Canyon with a tram and huge hotel complex, right down in the canyon at the confluence of the Little Colorado. Hard to imagine anything that abominable is even possible, but some of the tribe are pushing for it. Just goes to show how much that we take for granted as protected really isn't if there is a lapse in vigilance. But people are already up in arms over this, including the Park Service itself. With Yosemite Valley, it's more a risk of becoming an anything-goes three-ring-circus theme park. One more reason to either stick to the high country or visit the Valley off-season.

So you're saying the majority of the 1,675 views of this thread here are in California, and also pay attention to little news bits about wing suit deaths?

[Drew Wiley]

The deaths were covered on virtually every TV channel and got sizable a spread in the SF Chronicle and probably numerous other papers as well. This is a very outdoorsy culture around here, despite the large population. Everyone was talking about it, even in the office. And anything related to core policy in Yosemite attracts attention and controversy, including fringe sports that compromise the definition of a National Park in the eyes of many. I have mixed feelings, since I'm close to numerous climbers, and certainly did foolish things in the mtns in my own youth. But technically, what they did was illegal, and these kinds of things do
often put others at risk. And I must add that there is an element of the climber community, maybe a small element, which is very eco-unfriendly. They leave their trash everywhere, scar the rocks, leave rope burns on delicate features (like Delicate and other arches), and frankly, don't get much sympathy from me. A lot of this is for the sake of showing off on U-tube, so there's a temptation toward increasingly ostentatious stunts. For example, it's not particularly fun to be
walking or photographing near the base of a cliff with someone up there pushing off boulders while some buddy is filming it on his cell phone, or having someone jumping off and encountering who knows what on the way down. There have been plenty of incidents over the years in Yosemite from irresponsible
actions, from those who treat the place as a theme park.

[Greg Miller]

The deaths were covered on virtually every TV channel and got sizable a spread in the SF Chronicle and probably numerous other papers as well. This is a very outdoorsy culture around here, despite the large population. Everyone was talking about it, even in the office. And anything related to core policy in Yosemite attracts attention and controversy, including fringe sports that compromise the definition of a National Park in the eyes of many. I have mixed feelings, since I'm close to numerous climbers, and certainly did foolish things in the mtns in my own youth. But technically, what they did was illegal, and these kinds of things do
often put others at risk. And I must add that there is an element of the climber community, maybe a small element, which is very eco-unfriendly. They leave their trash everywhere, scar the rocks, leave rope burns on delicate features (like Delicate and other arches), and frankly, don't get much sympathy from me. A lot of this is for the sake of showing off on U-tube, so there's a temptation toward increasingly ostentatious stunts. For example, it's not particularly fun to be
walking or photographing near the base of a cliff with someone up there pushing off boulders while some buddy is filming it on his cell phone, or having someone jumping off and encountering who knows what on the way down. There have been plenty of incidents over the years in Yosemite from irresponsible
actions, from those who treat the place as a theme park.

OK. Its obvious that either you don't read what I write, or you purposely choose to reply as if you didn't. Either way, it's impossible to have a meaningful conversation this way.

[Drew Wiley]

I have no idea what you're complaining about, Greg. I'd imagine anything related to this posted on a large format camera forum would comprise about .000001%
of the overall media coverage. These weren't "little news bits anyway". More like the Academy Awards for the Darwin Award. Threads do drift, but so what?

[Sirius Glass]

CBC, National Post, BBC all covered it.

So did ABC, CBS and NBC.

[Peter Collins]

From direct observation in a comparable park--Yellowstone--the cost of admission is dwarfed by the cost of all the gear and souvenirs purchased at Canyon Village. ...And I think the parks should be supported by the fees of users--that's how to deal with Congress and dreadful maintenance/improvement. As Vaughn notes, you can drop a lot of cash on many alternatives that no one thinks twice about...

Just sayin'

[Leszek Vogt]

Glad that I no longer have to pay to get into the park. I was in a news blackout (by choice) for a month....while in AK. Apparently I didn't miss much. Suicidal people will continue (however this is explained)....

Les

[Drew Wiley]

Peter - just a handful of extremely popular parks like Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite subsidize much of the whole Park system. Nearly all the tourist trap riff-raff, trinket stands, and food service in Parks is money pocketed by private enterprise, not by the Park itself. They do pay leases and maybe some other misc fees; but overall, the incestuous relation between certain Parks and giant concessionaires like the Curry Co and Harvey has been very controversial over the years - they exert way too much influence of Park policy at times. But in terms of "just sayin", I'm one of those who has paid taxes my whole life, so feel that getting into the Park system for free isn't exactly a crime. Generating revenue mainly by entrance fees is and open invitation to crowding within Parks anyway. Here in Calif we have more Natl Parks than any other state, and some of them don't charge a dime to get in.

[Vaughn]

Harvey?!! Whoa! That goes back a long time! I worked for the Fred Harvey Company in 1977 at the Grand Canyon (South Rim...pumping gas)...but it had been bought out by another company by then. We (the employees of Fred) had a saying...Fred never died, someone dropped a quarter into the Canyon and he is still down there looking for it. Fred also ran the Death Valley concessions at the time and some employees worked there for the winter and Grand Canyon in the summer.

But the company had a small rec program for the employees, including a kiln for ceramics -- but more importantly (to me) a darkroom where I made my first prints (I had the 120 film developed for me at the camera shop in Flagstaff.) So the upside of the concessionaires is that young people have opportunities to work in a National Park (sometimes as one's first job) and have the opportunity to really get to know the Place. Granted some long-time employees are just a step or two above carnies. These days they are hiring a lot of over-seas kids.

I am also represented by the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite Valley...so I have some bias about some of the Park's concessionaires...LOL!

If I had to pay every time I entered Redwood National Park, I'd be a poorer man! The associated State park did not use to collect an entrance fee for the Fern Canyon area, but do now...but not for the rest of the park. Don't mind paying since on a per-visit basis to the park, it is dimes a visit.

[Drew Wiley]

It was the self-interest or basically greed of the great early RR lines that spawned much of the NP movement to begin with, along with those classic old hotels.
Yosemite was a bit different in that it was allegedly protected as a state park, then highly abused by commercial interests once again. John Muir came there to
cut down trees to supply the sawmill for the most notorious hotelier/developer. Irony. I grew up during that post-War boom when everyone was car-camping in the Parks and watched bears being fed garbage from grandstands, etc. AA was fostered by a commercial interest not totally admirable, but like Muir, fell in love with the mtns and then become highly instrumental in the formation of Kings Canyon NP through his photography. Then the wilderness movement starting redefining a lot of things. I think Ken Burns did a superb job in tracing the evolution of thinking in his NP documentary series. As far as annoyances like bat-suit jumpers are concerned, I don't think their numbers are going to multiply out of hand anytime soon. Kinda a self-limiting sport in terms of realistic duration of career.

[John Kasaian]

FYI forest fire near HWY 41 and Sky Ranch RD North of Oakhurst, South of Fish Camp and above Bass Lake, and a second fire near North Fork. If you're headed N on 41 to Yosemite check road conditions for possible delays(I prefer listening to local news radio, I've been burned too many times by Caltrans:mad:)

[Drew Wiley]

Well, that area has only burned about twenty times in my lifetime. My first year in high school half the students were homeless due to the massive fires that leveled Ahwanee and Nipinawasee, and damned near most of Oakhurst too. Hope that pretty Nelder Cr area doesn't get hit this round. Is "Bass" still a Lake at all?
Wish Trump's hideous casino in Coarsegold would burn down, but it's below the brush zone. Maybe they'll get a kitchen fire someday from all the tri-tips, which
allegedly are tasty - about all the locals go in there for.

[John Kasaian]

The casino is closed. Locals think it will never reopen until the both sides come to an agreement (and all the $$ is returned)
I didn't know Trump had a dog in that fight.
He sure spoiled the ambiance on Lewer's St. in Honolulu with his "urban renewal.":(

[Drew Wiley]

It never was on Indian land, so was legally ambiguous to begin with. That's a tiny tiny rancheria. So Trump deliberately gave it too big a footprint (including parking), that it had to be on his own private property adjacent, and required the Chukchansi to lease the thing from him, at obviously little net profit to them. I knew something was fishy back when somebody was buying up all the land around it. But he's lost money on most of these gigs. Can't compete with the big Casinos like Table Mtn. I don't know how many Chukchansi are still left. But at least they're not a totally fictitious band like some. One of the very few potentially remaining ones I went to school with, and I'd sometimes run into him in the high country when he was leading pack trains for the Cunningham outfit. Little tiny guy on a huge horse. His cowboy hat was almost bigger than he was. I ran cross-country with him, along with a couple of guys now technically classified as part of the North Fork tribe, both of whom are doing well. One of them got his phD and has since opened a little day school up there to try to keep
the dialect alive, as well as get down in writing some of last of the native lore. Every little village up there had a slightly differing dialect, or radically different if
you compare Paiute-extracted Monache bands to either Central Valley Yokuts or the Miwok around Yosemite. The Monache were aggressive and virtually wiped
out some of the earlier foothills Yokuts. It's very difficult to say when they migrated over the top. I'm think it might have been given a boost back when the
southwest was hit by prolonged droughts in the 1200's or whatever. Hard to say what was happening in the Great Basin per se. But apart from Mono Lk, food was always a lot more abundant on the western slope of the Sierra, including tons of salmon, lots of acorns. Then sometime relatively late, probably in the 1700's, there seems to have been a huge population explosion among the Monache, only a century or so before anglo contact. The Spanish never messed with
them - they learned that lesson the hard way. There was a tiny Spanish outpost in the lower foothills. But I'll never publicly post its exact location.

[John Kasaian]

It never was on Indian land, so was legally ambiguous to begin with. That's a tiny tiny rancheria. So Trump deliberately gave it too big a footprint (including parking), that it had to be on his own private property adjacent, and required the Chukchansi to lease the thing from him, at obviously little net profit to them. I knew something was fishy back when somebody was buying up all the land around it. But he's lost money on most of these gigs. Can't compete with the big Casinos like Table Mtn. I don't know how many Chukchansi are still left. But at least they're not a totally fictitious band like some. One of the very few potentially remaining ones I went to school with, and I'd sometimes run into him in the high country when he was leading pack trains for the Cunningham outfit. Little tiny guy on a huge horse. His cowboy hat was almost bigger than he was. I ran cross-country with him, along with a couple of guys now technically classified as part of the North Fork tribe, both of whom are doing well. One of them got his phD and has since opened a little day school up there to try to keep
the dialect alive, as well as get down in writing some of last of the native lore. Every little village up there had a slightly differing dialect, or radically different if
you compare Paiute-extracted Monache bands to either Central Valley Yokuts or the Miwok around Yosemite. The Monache were aggressive and virtually wiped
out some of the earlier foothills Yokuts. It's very difficult to say when they migrated over the top. I'm think it might have been given a boost back when the
southwest was hit by prolonged droughts in the 1200's or whatever. Hard to say what was happening in the Great Basin per se. But apart from Mono Lk, food was always a lot more abundant on the western slope of the Sierra, including tons of salmon, lots of acorns. Then sometime relatively late, probably in the 1700's, there seems to have been a huge population explosion among the Monache, only a century or so before anglo contact. The Spanish never messed with
them - they learned that lesson the hard way. There was a tiny Spanish outpost in the lower foothills. But I'll never publicly post its exact location.
Was that Spanish outpost connected with the Spanish gold mine?

[Drew Wiley]

No. It was a mission-adjunct in the mid-eighteenth century, a long ways from backup. It's a sensitive location, already unwittingly built over. There are still a
few surviving remnants of an adjacent Yokuts village. The kind of people who now own the property would no doubt bulldoze everything and deliberately destroy it all if they had the least suspicion there was something of archaelological interest on their land. That's how things are done. The principal individual, possibly now deceased, was the prime mover n' shaker in the local real estate scene, who had a dubious reputation in general, and was once the predominant force in trying to secede from the state as well as prevent completion of Hwy 168. He quieted down a bit after narrowly avoiding prison after getting caught in an embezzlement scheme. But I shouldn't really leave any more bread crumbs as clues, because it gets even more stereotypically ugly from there on in terms of
hillbilly customs and bailouts from equally questionable parties. Fresno County, as usual.

[John Kasaian]

Yosemite rangers in action!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BlqogvkOpI

[Robert Langham]

Yesterday was the first day that the Yosemite Falls cam showed no water coming over the upper falls.

[Jim Noel]

Sounds like an interesting and fun time, Vaughn!

Just a note for you Sierra junkies...Tioga, Sonora, and Ebbets passes are currently closed due to snow. NWS forecasts are calling for chances of snow up high into the next week. As of this writing, there's been no info on when the passes might open. If I hear anything, I'll holler.

I sure am glad I have my multi-agency Geezer pass! That little card has saved me a bundle!

--P

My Geezer pass is 31 years old. You can imagine how much it has saved me in all those years.

[dsphotog]

2 children were killed last night in Yosemite, when a large oak tree limb fell on their tent, tragic.

[John Kasaian]

Tuolumne Meadows campground closed due to the Plague.
http://abc30.com/news/tuolumne-meadows-campground-in-yosemite-to-close-due-to-plague/930646/

[John Kasaian]

2 children were killed last night in Yosemite, when a large oak tree limb fell on their tent, tragic.
This was at the Upper Pines campground. So sad.