Yosemite

[ppine]

Just returned from a fall trip to Yosemite, which is like visiting a shrine in the fall.  The Valley is still magnificent and we had a great day on an obscure trail in the forest catherdrals.   I took the old wall tent with a wood stove for old time;s sake.  Fall colors were brilliant, especially the Pacific dogwood which turn pink and pale orange.  The crowds are quieter in the fall and the people were vefry easy to get along with.  This was all good news. 

The bad news is that the forests in the park look terrible.  After 150 years of protection,  there is mile after mile of standing dead timber from mulitple megafires.  Much of the green forest is way overstocked with too many stems per acre.  There are huge accumulations of dead trees and other organic matter on the forest floor.  Yosemite is a case study in what happens when Protectionism fails. 

The forest land around the park looks much better, although the effects of fire are very much in evidence.  Loaded log trucks went by all day long coming home on the Stanislaus and Eldorado NFs.  The times they are a changin.