Yosemite!!!

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I was able to spend four days in Yosemite National Park.  It was (and still is so take advantage of it if you have the chance) fee free weekend for all the National Parks.  With that in mind, along with reports of deep snow at higher elevations, I spent my backpacking days away from the classic sights of Yosemite Valley and opted instead for Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.  The history of Hetch Hetchy is a fascinating one centered around the common conflict between conservation and human resource needs.  The reservoir supplies all the water for the Bay Area and I have also heard it is used for irrigating much of the Central California croplands.  Amazingly all of the water comes from snow melt, and the area actually rarely gets precipitation from May through September.  For the students that are working on city issues, water security may be something to look at.

The weather was wonderful, a bit hot for backpacking, but I got to keep the rain fly off my tent all four nights.  Because it was still early enough in the season and snow melt was keeping things relatively wet, I had the go ahead to have campfires, which made a huge improvement to my solo camping entertainment.

The hot weather caused the waterfalls, creeks, and in some cases trails to be rushing with water.  

Plants were all in bloom and the small creatures were roaming about. 

My final night I braved the crowds and descended into Yosemite Valley.  I will have to go back to properly explore that area because this time around I mostly auto-toured (with an ice cream sandwich in hand!) and I definitely got hooked.  I stayed in Camp 4 with countless avid climbers who had set up camp for the season.  I am not a climber, but enjoyed the company and the range of characters I got to meet.