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“Getting Away” in Yosemite

Posted on | October 2, 2007 | No Comments

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One of the world’s most fantastic places is in our Bay Area backyard, four quick 

hours by car. If you haven’t been to Yosemite, no picture—not even Ansel Adams’(who broke his nose in the 1906 earthquake, I just learned!) –does the valleyjustice.I spent the weekend camping there for the first time (previous visits were daytrips for the most part). Got in with the family late Friday night to meet mybrother at Housekeeping Camp and settled in with hundreds of our closest campingfriends. But here’s the rub with Yosemite: it’s too popular.Tour buses galore gargle up and down the roadways and because it’s a relativelytight valley, the echo is significant. Outside our tent cabin, a Nisei Tours buswould sit and idle for 30 minutes in the morning, promptly at 8 a.m. and then atthe cocktail hour. Saturday night, I’d had enough and marched over and told thedriver to get his ass moving. Surprisingly, he did!But here’s the real deal: if you’re going camping, go camping. Don’t bring your home with you. Don’t bring your boombox, electrical adapters, your TV with satellite hookup, your laptop and videogames and your iPod. You’re camping for god’s sake. Bring a guitar, a harmonica,a mandolin and camp.I know it’s an old and popular lament, but the ease and lower cost of technologyis just making the situation a lot worse. I didn’t hear a single instrument inthe camp grounds the whole weekend. And yes, I didn’t bring mine, but I knewwe’d get in way late Friday night and Saturday was Kirk’s birthday dinner.We brought cameras and went large on the nature photography, including Malcolm,who took a lot of really fabulous shots over the two days. We hiked from GlacierPoint to Illilouette Falls and back and Sunday rolled up the valley to MirrorLake, our calf muscles barking most of the way.Next time, it’ll be a wilderness permit and a backpack and a lot more than twodays.

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