Old Postcard Wednesday--Half Dome, Yosemite National Park

I hope to see Yosemite some day and if given the opportunity I'd go in a heartbeat, in spite of certain dangers.....

An Associated Press article published November 17, 2008, reports an alarming rise in rockfalls in the Curry Village area of Yosemite National Park. Read the full report here, while considering yourself warned with these excerpts:

Curry Village is the most family-friendly lodging in the park, consisting of cabins, stores and restaurants run by an outside company. It is in Yosemite Valley, beneath the unstable granite of Glacier Point.

The village has experienced more rockfalls during the past decade than any other place in the one-by-seven-mile valley. U.S. Geological Survey and park records list as many as 46 since 1996 — four times the number during the previous 139 years.

Since 1999, 20 of the structures at Curry Village have been directly hit by boulders and many more have been damaged by flying rocks.

Since 1857, at least 535 rockfalls in Yosemite Valley have killed 14 people and injured 62, more than at any other national park. Yosemite Valley is easily the most collapse-prone place in a park that receives over 3 million visitors a year.

Officials say that visitors assume some risk when they visit national parks, and that the parks are not legally required to post warnings about hazards in wild areas.

"By definition Yosemite National Park is a wild place and these natural processes occur and are going to continue," Gediman said. "By us not putting signs right there, we're not trying to hide the fact that there has been rockfall in the area."

He said if officials put up warning signs about every hazard, the park would be covered with them.

Here's a quick clip of Yosemite Falls:


Original Video - More videos at TinyPic


Yosemite
by Joaquin Miller {what an amazing bio!}

Sound! sound! sound!
O colossal walls and crown'd
In one eternal thunder!
Sound! sound! sound!
O ye oceans overhead,
While we walk, subdued in wonder,
In the ferns and grasses, under
And beside the swift Merced!
Fret! fret! fret!
Streaming, sounding banners, set
On the giant granite castles
In the clouds and in the snow!
But the foe he comes not yet,
We are loyal, valiant vassals,
And we touch the trailing tassles
Of the banners far below.
Surge! surge! surge!
From the white Sierra's verge,
To the very valley blossom.
Surge! surge! surge!
Yet the song-bird builds a home,
And the mossy branches cross them
In the clouds of falling foam.
Sweep! sweep! sweep!
O ye heaven-born and deep,
In one dread, unbroken chorus!
We may wonder or may weep,
We may wait on God before us;
We may shout or lift a hand,
We may bow down and deplore us,
But may never understand.
Beat! beat! beat!
We advance, but would retreat
From this restless, broken breast
Of the earth in a convulsion.
We would rest, but dare not rest,
For the angel of expulsion
From this Paradise below
Waves run onward and... we go.


Speaking of angel of expulsion........take a look at the antics of these crazy Yosemite tourists (yes, that's a bear.....a little one, but still...a bear)!

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic


`