Yosemite at your Feet
Yosemite is the world's quintessentialNational Park, in all of its glory and misery. For one it is acut into the separation between the western and eastern sierra's- a glimpse of two entirely different ecosystems packed into aquaint and massive park.
Because the valley is easilyaccessible, and because its beauty is all for the taking - rightthere in front of you - and so unsubtle in every detail, the parkhas become overrun.
Perhaps there is some refugein the rock climbers, with their dangling equipment and long,strangly hair and seemingly oblivious to the constant humdrumof the chatterboxes below them.
But one look at all the holesand stains of equipment left jammed in each crevice, its easyto see that the climbers are part of the larger trashbin. Despitethe mess that all this grandeur has created, I learned that theappeal was real when we walked across the valley floor, throughthe meadows and the swamp and across the pine woods and alongsidethe beige-sand riverside.
There is a compositional senseto this place - idyllic, I suffer to use the word but can't avoidit. The air is warm, but breezy. Everything seems to be in unison- its almost sick, or unreal, like Disneyland. But its not, itsall real; created by a slate of glacial ice cutting a steep passageof perfect rock edges. The compositional perfection of the valley- the aesthetic balance - puts a picture in my head of the manyphotographers who have come here and abused their creative craftfor a simple shot.
It is with great pleasurethat I learned that the real Yosemite lies east of here - vasttundra plains and endless ranges.
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