Really long lines to get into Yosemite & Kings Canyon this week end

People wanting to go play in the snow, I guess.

With most services closed on account of the 'rona and not much plowing going on, I fear a lot of guests will spend their visit just driving around just looking for a space to park.

We do a lot of skiing at our local NP, Crater Lake. This winter, crowds like I've never seen. Hopefully now it will quiet down.

I miss the hills. While everyone was going crazy looking for Snow Park spots up the road, I'd be exploring the lower Kings with nobody in sight for miles. At the moment, I'm too miserable with shoulder bursitis to drive very far at all, but just finished making some 8x10 negs from interpositives from color neg shots of deep Sequoia backcountry, off-trail places I'll probably never get to again at my age. Double-neg technique lets me get a rich print with a paper of my choice, rather than using some neo version of a panchromatic b&w paper. Last week I made some more b&w internegs from old LF color chromes. Results have been wonderful; but I was picky which images to choose for this kind of repurposed application. There were a number of ice and snow shots. Some of the glacier subjects are just plain gone forever now. Don't know when those ole snowshoes will see action again, or my ice axe.

My son and his friend were climbing Five Open Books yesterday. Reports that the valley was near deserted, the weather beautiful and saw only two patches of ice on 41 going into the valley