Voyager3
Active member
As referenced in my EXPOdition report here, I also took a trip over a few weeks of February. It was another loop of the American west from Newport Oregon to Denver, then down to Death Valley and up California to Yosemite in round about attempt to see the Firefall. For a couple weeks a year if the conditions are right, Horsetail Falls in the valley glows at sunset. There has to be enough snow on the ground, and yet warm enough for the snow to melt and flow off the face of El Capitan. The sky to the west has to be clear. If all these elements work together, with luck you can be here for this.
It was important this time to take that chance to see it because I had had a rough winter. The chunk of time betwen December to February, to my mind, didn't happen. I can't recall doing much of any significance and recoiled into myself. But the Firefall was coming around again, and here I had a chance to put some distance between myself and my thoughts. I needed a change of scenery, and when I'm moving, I have less time to feel bad.
The plan was to come around Yosemite from the bottom. I would give myself a couple weeks to drive from Newport to the park, and one can see a lot if you go the wrong way first. And if you're me and want to hit the road in a meaningful way where do you go the first day? Yes, the Alvord. Again. Hopefully by now you're not sick of pictures of this place. I'm not. Arriving at the playa in the dark is deceiving. Even in the daytime, it's hard to put a useful sense of scale to work to help you navigate it. So finding camp was really just picking a direction and driving some distance. It was a long day of just driving, so we'll see what the trip is going to be like for real in the morning.
The night was uncomfortable, and it would soon become normal to have arms fall asleep on the failing sleeping pad in the back of the Jeep, and to wake a couple hours before dawn freezing to start the engine again and get some heat circulating inside. Overnight lows were about 20 in a 32 degree bag that apparently is safe down to 19. But oddly, I never started a day in a poor mood. Physical discomfort was actually welcomed as a distraction and served to shift focus and perspective. Plus, we like being on the road don't we? And we'll put up with it.
Beautiful though the rising sun is, it took some time to make an impression on the chill of the air. We played, finding fun ways to play with shadows and the only stick for miles.
I realize I showed pictures of the Alvord twice in my previous report, and page one so far is mostly the same. I'm trusting that they're still welcome. Maybe you've never been, and you hope you might visit someday. I hope you do. For me, it was I suppose the metaphor for my blank slate. There's some kind of reset button hit by big dry lakebeds.
It was important this time to take that chance to see it because I had had a rough winter. The chunk of time betwen December to February, to my mind, didn't happen. I can't recall doing much of any significance and recoiled into myself. But the Firefall was coming around again, and here I had a chance to put some distance between myself and my thoughts. I needed a change of scenery, and when I'm moving, I have less time to feel bad.
The plan was to come around Yosemite from the bottom. I would give myself a couple weeks to drive from Newport to the park, and one can see a lot if you go the wrong way first. And if you're me and want to hit the road in a meaningful way where do you go the first day? Yes, the Alvord. Again. Hopefully by now you're not sick of pictures of this place. I'm not. Arriving at the playa in the dark is deceiving. Even in the daytime, it's hard to put a useful sense of scale to work to help you navigate it. So finding camp was really just picking a direction and driving some distance. It was a long day of just driving, so we'll see what the trip is going to be like for real in the morning.
The night was uncomfortable, and it would soon become normal to have arms fall asleep on the failing sleeping pad in the back of the Jeep, and to wake a couple hours before dawn freezing to start the engine again and get some heat circulating inside. Overnight lows were about 20 in a 32 degree bag that apparently is safe down to 19. But oddly, I never started a day in a poor mood. Physical discomfort was actually welcomed as a distraction and served to shift focus and perspective. Plus, we like being on the road don't we? And we'll put up with it.
Beautiful though the rising sun is, it took some time to make an impression on the chill of the air. We played, finding fun ways to play with shadows and the only stick for miles.
I realize I showed pictures of the Alvord twice in my previous report, and page one so far is mostly the same. I'm trusting that they're still welcome. Maybe you've never been, and you hope you might visit someday. I hope you do. For me, it was I suppose the metaphor for my blank slate. There's some kind of reset button hit by big dry lakebeds.