Decided to sleep in. (That means I got up at 6:15 as opposed to 5:15.) I didn’t want to rush into the park like so many others at the Indian Flat campground were doing. Of course, considering how busy the park is getting, and how quickly parking fills up, you should enter the park by 6 if you want a good start to your hike. However, though I can rush with the best of them, sometimes I don’t want to. So I had a slow morning.

Made coffee. Typed on the computer. Had breakfast at a restaurant. Read about the Yosemite Village and the Mariposa Grove of sequoias. I decided to indulge my curiosity for these touristy things as opposed to going up another mountain.

I entered the park at like 9 am. The line was short. It will soon not be short. After the California kids get out of school in June, the line will be like an hour to two hours at 9 am. That’s why I chose May.

Headed towards the Yosemite Village. The sky was cloudless. The sun was bright. The temperature was around 70. The weather was perfect on my skin.

I checked out the main Yosemite store. Went to the Ansel Adams gallery. The attendant there wearing a mask said they’re limiting the number of people inside, no doubt due to the Corona treachery still. I shook my head and walked away with a look of disgust. I think I will choose to be more intolerant to those wearing masks. Wearing a mask is almost like flying the flag of the enemy. It shows allegiance to a reality inimical to mine.

Went towards the Visitor Center, which was so-so, but did buy John Muir’s book The Yosemite as a souvenir, and will read it. His romanticized descriptions of nature are superb, largely because he wandered nature’s wilds for years as a literal vagabond, and was thus more capable feeling and thus expressing all the good feelings and glories God’s Creation can make a man experience. He was the perfect romantic.

Then went to the Awahnee village, which was the tribe of Indians living in Yosemite at the time the white man came and conquered in the early 1850’s. Their huts looked… uncomfortable…dirty… but, apparently, they kept you warmer than any tent. Fifteen minutes was enough.

I then went to Curry Village to perfect my understanding of where I should park for my hike up the Mist Trail in the morning (which I did before in June of 2019). I fully intended to get up at 5, and be hiking by 6, mostly because I feel freer and more spontaneous on hikes that begin early. I know I can end up at much cooler places. At the very least I can experiment more with photography, unlike my time at Yosemite Point.

And I want to experiment with photography in the Range of Light.

By then it was about 1. I still wanted to go to the Mariposa Grove of sequoias on the far southern end of the park, but, didn’t want to get back to my campsite at 6, as I figured I’d spend hours at the grove taking photo after photo after photo…

So, I went up through the Wawona Tunnel, and turned around after about a mile, because I didn’t want to deal with winding roads. Because of construction in the park, which made the traffic worse, I had to run the entire length of the Valley before looping back on the one-way roads to get back to camp. So, I decided to lay down at Cathedral beach along the Merced to chill. Took a little nap.

At 4 I left. Got back to camp. Cleaned. Organized. Got ready for my Mist trail hike, and read John Muir’s book on the Yosemite until I feel asleep. Good day.