Granite
I am in Yosemite, and set out this morning 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, cross two stone bridges, 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 high up on the walls.
This jumble of rocks appeared around a corner in a stand of Ponderosa pines and Douglas firs, 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 stripes of 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 is the sound of white water, cascading over the blocks of granite in Tenaya Creek
Posted from Yosemite Valley, CA
4/16/19
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