I was in Yosemite Valley yesterday with our campus Geology Club; it was raining, rather heavily at times. Did it spoil our trip? Not by a long shot...it was a hardy crew who knew it would be wet. It turned out to be one of my finest trips ever (and those who follow this blog know I am there a lot!). Fall in Yosemite means lots of beautiful color in the trees, but waterfalls are generally expected to be dry. Instead, for us, Yosemite Falls was a mere trickle at noon, but by three o'clock, they were booming like it was spring runoff. Apparently we witnessed a record set by the Merced River. It rose in one day from 20 cubic feet per second to 1,160 cubic feet per second (the previous high flow record for November 1 was 645 cfs; current data is here). And it looked the part, the water was brown and sudsy and full of debris. It was an extraordinary privilege to be in the Valley that day.. it was beautiful and thrilling at the same time.Update: those of you wondering how the most beautiful tree in the world looked after two weeks, it's lost all of its leaves already. But there were PLENTY of others!
Amazing photos. Thanks for an interesting and informative post. I have been to Yosemite but my photos are not good as yours. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteI am working on a new website at http://www.recreationparks.net and have a park page specifically about Yosemite National Park. You can find it here http://www.recreationparks.net/CA/mariposa/yosemite-national-park-yosemite-falls. I'd love to get feedback from you and your readers about the site, ideas for what regional information to add, etc. I'm hoping that many people will vote on the activities at this and nearby parks, since that information will let me setup a search to help people find activities that interest them, and lead people to discover new public parks.