Dan's Outside

A Good Time to Visit Tuolumne Area?

As you may have heard, although Tioga Pass Road is open the Park Service and concessions are being slow about opening up services. Apparently many campgrounds are still closed as are some of the other facilities. Martha Claassen went thru there earlier this week and reports:

Tuesday I drove through the park to Twin Lakes and put the poster up
in Tuolumne Meadows at the store, campground, and wilderness office.
If anyone wants to visit that part of the park without the usual
summer crush they should get up there right now!! It was a beautiful
day and there were less than 6 cars parked at Olmstead Point (and one lone photographer there snapping the sunset Weds. night) , one car
in the Wilderness Permit lot, almost no one on the road at all, you
get the picture. It is sad that the camping facilities are not
available for use, I know there are many
disappointed would be visitors to our national treasure, but for the
hiker/backpacker, or
anyone that dislikes crowds, this late opening is bliss…

Sounds almost as good as October, but with the mosquitos… ;-)
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June 30, 2005 Posted by gdanmitchell | News | Comments Off on A Good Time to Visit Tuolumne Area?

Remembrance of Things Future: The Mystery of Time

A bit off-topic, but I love this stuff. Remembrance of Things Future: The Mystery of Time in the New York Times:

When it comes to the nature of time, physicists are pretty much at as much of a loss as the rest of us who seem hopelessly swept along in its current. The mystery of time is connected with some of the thorniest questions in physics, as well as in philosophy, like why we remember the past but not the future, how causality works, why you can’t stir cream out of your coffee or put perfume back in a bottle.

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June 27, 2005 Posted by gdanmitchell | News | Comments Off on Remembrance of Things Future: The Mystery of Time

Previous Tioga Road Opening Dates

The Yosemite National Park web site has a page showing all Tioga Road opening dates since 1980. The latest date ever was in 1998 when the road opened on July 1.

That was the year I crossed over the pass on the next weekend on my way home from the Markleeville Death Ride and saw people still sking at the pass, water rushing everywhere, and a good portion of Tuolumne Meadow filled by a lake.
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June 21, 2005 Posted by gdanmitchell | News | Comments Off on Previous Tioga Road Opening Dates

No Date Yet for Tioga Road Opening

The Park Service people are maintaining their inscrutability regarding the opening date of Tioga Road. They continue to maintain that no opening date has been set yet but that it could be late June (a foregone conclusion) or early July.

A July opening is a possibility – it has happened – but pretty darn late given that all of the other Sierra passes have been open for weeks now, including Sonora Pass which is nearly as high.

If I had to bet, I might go for sometime late next week. It sounds like the road has been essentially plowed out for a while now, but that there are problematic spots. Today I saw a photo on the Yosemite National Park site showing snow on the road near Olmstead Point. However, beyond the obvious snow is a lot of uncovered granite.
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June 20, 2005 Posted by gdanmitchell | News | Comments Off on No Date Yet for Tioga Road Opening

Tracking the 'year of the falling stars

A fascinating look at how the Lakota Sioux used ‘winter counts’ as their calendar for generations. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories]

If you had to chronicle your family or personal history without the benefit of a calendar, chances are that you’d link important events to each other – ‘that was the same year we bought the new house,’ or ‘that happened just after I graduated.’

The Lakota Sioux used just such a system to preserve their own past, using a specific incident to anchor each year in their oral histories, and the time between first winter snowfalls to determine the year’s length. The resulting Lakota Winter Counts form the basis of a new online exhibit by the Smithsonian Institution, and you’d be surprised at just how much history can lie behind a single, simple image.

Lakota Winter Counts: An Online Exhibit can be found at http://www.wintercounts.si.edu.
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May 17, 2005 Posted by gdanmitchell | News | Comments Off on Tracking the 'year of the falling stars

Tioga Pass Opening

Speaking of Yosemite… at this time of the year, the attention of Sierra afficionados (at least those in the Bay Area) turns to the question of when Tioga Pass will open, offering access to the Yosemite high country and the eastern Sierra.

I hear that the plowing is going quite slowly this year due to deep snow and late (and continuing!) storms. Some are betting on a late June opening. Of course, if the unusually cool and wet spring continues it could be later. During one season in the late 90s the pass was not fully open until early July!
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May 10, 2005 Posted by gdanmitchell | News | Comments Off on Tioga Pass Opening

Time to Go to Yosemite!

***Yosemite Drapes Itself in Its Splendid Liquid Veils, and Preens
(New York Times):

It poured again on Sunday in the Yosemite Valley, but people were smiling in their ponchos and galoshes. It has been that kind of spring here: dreadful weather and delighted visitors.

Like many lakes and rivers and waterfalls in Yosemite National Park, Mirror Lake is fed by melting snow, much more of it this year than usual.
With extraordinarily heavy snowfall in the higher elevations, and lots of rain elsewhere, the rivers and waterfalls in the Sierra Nevada are gushing. Hikers must hopscotch around muddy puddles, and much of the park remains closed because of impassible roads, but the Yosemite water show is at its best in years.

I can get there in a day – time to go!
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May 10, 2005 Posted by gdanmitchell | News | Comments Off on Time to Go to Yosemite!