On our first morning in Yosemite, my hiking partner, In Ja, and I set out to walk from the hotel (the Ahwahnee, now known as the Majestic) to Mirror Lake. We were told to walk across the meadow, where we would strike a road, and then to turn east and just follow the signs.
We quickly broke out of the trees to see the north walls of Yosemite Valley and Royal Arches, with water forming impromptu (and unnamed) waterfalls from the walls of Washington Column.
But most of the walls were hiding behind the fog, and even those disappeared as we walked deeper into the forest – and the blocks of granite which have fallen over the years.
What was very surprising to me was how many of the blocks looked as though a giant sculptor had taken an awl and chisel and made straight cuts to separate the blocks from their original positions.
This jumble of rocks appeared around a corner in a stand of Ponderosa pines and Douglas first, which obviously have grown up after the rocks fell.
I was really taken with this huge boulder alongside the path, with needles from its companion Ponderosa pine
And then the juxtaposition of the textures – the relatively smooth granite and the ‘puzzle pieces’ of the pine’s bark.
There was a rock that reminded me eerily of the blue stones in the circle of standing stones at Stonehenge
A little further on there was a black oak which has obviously been standing here for a long time
The bright green of the moss on this boulder really stood out
The base of the north wall suddenly appeared, with pink on its surface
Soon, we broke out of the trees and boulders to stand on the side of Mirror Lake and look across it to the south walls of the valley. Unfortunately, half dome was wreathed in fog, but again there are little waterfalls everywhere, cascading off the granite
Mt. Watkins, on the north side of the valley, loomed faintly out of the cloud,
And everywhere was the sound of white water, cascading over the blocks of granite in Tenaya Creek
Mary
Posted on the train heading home, somewhere west of Antioch, CA
4/22/19
Mary's Travel Blog 
Beautiful! Hi to you and In Ja! I hope to hike Yosemite some day too! But up next for me is Mongolia and China.
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Hi, Dieney! Glad to hear from you. I have been thinking about going to China also, but I’m really worried about the pollution. It certainly got to me when we were in southeast Asia, and I think the pollution in China is even worse.
I have more posts to upload to my blog: right now I am trying to catch up on washing, shopping, etc.…
Mary
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Well, you’ll be able to “come along” to China on my blog. Not sure how much I’ll be able to do along the way, since info suggests WiFi is not that great (and you know that’s not good when it comes to uploading photos.
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When are you going to China? I am trying to figure out the best (read less polluted” time to go.
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I’m leaving LA May 19th…I’ll let you know how it is…
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Hi, Dieney! I just signed up to go to China in April of next year – hope it is as great a trip as yours was. I’m going with a new company (new to me, that is) Gate 1 travel. The friends with whom I am going have taken 5 or 6 trips with that company, and rave about it. On another subject, I’m leaving tomorrow with OAT for Morocco via London (friend with whom I am traveling has a flat 4 blocks from the British Museum, and we are going to spend 4 nights there before flying to Morocco on the 19th). Then we’ll fly back to London on October 9, spend a few more nights there, and come back on the 13th. The tour leader assures me that all of the hotels have wi-fi in Morocco, so hopefully I’ll be able to post to the blog while I’m there.
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Have a great trip to Morocco, I’m booked to go there September ‘20 with OAT. I hope you enjoy China as much as I did! We did see Gate 1 groups periodically so some of the activities at least are similar. I’ll be interested to hear how you find them as a tour provider. My friends Debbie and Rebecca, who you met in SEAsia, and I are heading to Egypt in April with Vantage. And I’m just a couple of weeks away from leaving for Bohemia!
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Very interesting. It has been over 10 years since visiting Mirror Lake.
Enjoy the rest of your stay or are you back?
Vishu
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In Ja and I got back yesterday afternoon. I am trying to upload some more posts, but my friend Pat Washburn is moving down to the first floor (to get roll in shower) and I will be busy at least the whole of tomorrow… Hopefully, by the end of the week there will be more posts. I am working on one about Hetch Hetchy.
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