Yosemite!

We recently made our yearly pilgrimage to Yosemite.  For reasons that I can’t explain, my first visit to Yosemite didn’t happen until 2002.  Once there, I was smitten.  The beauty and grandeur of the place is awesome beyond description.  So we’ve returned almost every year since then.

This time it was colder and wetter than usual, but weather was not a show-stopper.  What earthquakes and glaciers and erosion over millions and millions of years had created: towering granite walls thousands of feet high and extraordinary waterfalls cascading down to the valley floor, couldn’t be tarnished by a few raindrops.

We stayed in one of the cottages at the Ahwahnee Hotel.  They call it the Majestic now because of an unresolved name dispute with the former managers, but I’m old school and it will always be the Ahwahnee.  The cottages are behind the main building surrounded by trees and flowers, so it is a combination of comfort and beauty.

The Ahwahnee opened in 1927.  It was constructed from rough-cut granite, steel and timber and designed to fit in perfectly with the natural environment in which it is located.  Of particular interest to me is the Grand Dining Room.  It is a unique space like no other.  Huge without being intimidating, it is 130 feet long, 51 feet wide, with a 34 foot ceiling supported by rock columns that give it a cathedral-type atmosphere.

One day we drove down to the Mariposa Grove, home to hundreds of Giant Sequoias, which has recently been restored to better protect the trees and vegetation and facilitate viewing by visitors.  We were very happy to see that the restoration project was exceedingly well done.

Yosemite’s many waterfalls were at their peak.  We’ve had a lot of rain and snow this year, so the drought is over and the waterfalls are torrential.

A great trip – indeed!