Yosemite -- Beautiful and Expensive

Yosemite National Park -- My family has visited dozens of great national parks through the years, from the Everglades to the Olympic, but Yosemite will always be my favorite. The scenery, even when stuck in heavy traffic, is beyond stunning. 

Get out and hike -- if you can find a place to park-- and you will never forget the experience.

As beautiful as it is, sometimes visiting there can be troubling. Particularly if you arrive during peak summer months or happen to be a low income family.  Be prepared to pay a lot, and be crowded.

With crowds,  cars,  past management decisions and global warming the park now can be a nightmare on a hot August day. 

 It is no bargain anytime for average American families. 

And beyond the reach of the truly poor. 

A minimum wage worker in America would have to spend a full day's wages, even  bringing a picnic, just to be there for one day.

It is essentially a park where the wealthy, including foreign visitors, are treated as special guests and encouraged to stay. And that is entirely consistent with the park's history. When first discovered only the very rich from San Francisco, the east coast and Europe, could afford the expensive journey. It was a special place, mostly for the elite. Still is.

Today getting there is not the problem. Staying there is.

  One week at the Yosemite Lodge -- the only basic ""motel" inside the park -- would cost a family of four between $1,400 and $2,100 dollars, probably more. 

If you can get in.

 Meals at the limited eating places near the hotels could cost another $1,000 or so.

One week at the Ahwahnee Hotel, the park's iconic lodging place, today can cost a couple between $4,000 and $5,000. It is a grand looking hotel, even if the rooms are not special and the service lacking. Our recent lunch of hamburgers was $50.

In theory the rates are supposed to be comparable to facilities near the park. In reality park administrators have used destination resort areas like Tahoe and San Francisco, even Disney, not Mariposa or Merced. It is a stupid system.
 

The grand lobby of the Ahwahnee

The dining hall--bring money

Other housing in Yosemite is available only if you are lucky and diligent. There are campgrounds, housekeeping units (a three-sided canvas shelter), tent cabins, and a very few real cabins. You have to plan  months ahead. Demand always outweighs capacity. Most are unavailable half the year.

 Campground spots are so competitive that experienced visitors typically set the alarm clock and jump on the Internet the moment the window for reservations opens --  several months ahead. 

Half the year the vast majority of campsites are completely closed   while the most expensive lodge rooms and hotel remain open and operating. The limited camping spots are almost always  booked way ahead, including the  very few available in winter in the Valley. 

At a time when there are normally no crowds -- a relative term -- the park service jams people into less and less space. My estimate is that non-luxury available housing in the Valley is reduced about 90% for six months of the year.

The park service web site claims more than 1,500 campsites are available in the park, capable of housing almost 9,000 people.  

That is misleading. Perhaps deliberately. 

That number of people assumes most campsites  average six people, an unrealistic number. Three to four is probably accurate.

And then most are closed for half the year.

This November  only one campground was open for car campers in the Valley, plus the small mountain climber's camp, probably with less than 100 total sites and room for about 400 people total.  Other campgrounds, including many below the snow line, were closed for the season. 

A lack of employees due to Covid restrictions affected 2021 numbers.

But Covid is not the real  problem. Population growth and management decisions are. 

 The trend throughout the last four decades consistently has been to shut down the least expensive places to stay the night, and maintain  the most expensive. It's all about revenue, a position the park service finds itself in due to a lack of congressional support and pressure from concessionaires and politicians.

 

Not far from the Ahwahnee, a resident bear

The 150 year history of Yosemite is a classic American tale, including greed, failures, violence, triumph and some success. In the 1800s it was the natives who lived there that were run off. Today it is average American families who pay taxes.  And increasingly, it is the people who drive up to the gate, willing to pay to get in. 

Tour groups and people who use travel agencies get access. They pay more.

 Deciding how the park should operate in the interest of the public has always been a challenge. It remains so today. In the 1800s, prompted by glorious paintings and photographs, Abraham Lincoln set the space aside -- preserving it forever -- and asked California to manage it. The state chased off the early settlers, ignored the natives, and mismanaged it to the point the federal government finally took it back. 

Eventually the National Park Service was given the responsibility to manage Yosemite.

Hiking toward Mirror Lake

It has never been an easy task, and even today there are so many competing voices the future of the park remains uncertain. Congress pats itself on the back for supporting national parks, but provides so little funding the public is asked to pay constantly increasing fees for everything from entrance fees to places to stay to hamburgers. 

The congressional representative of the district that includes the park generally opposes spending any money on anything to make the situation better.  

Outside of a few urban-based environmental non-profits and some employee groups, the park has no effective advocates.

Close to the old stables

 The park's senior management has historically struggled, often forced to make hard choices between protecting the park for the public and bowing to the commercial interests who make money on it. 

 Part of the problem is the mission to "preserve and protect" both the natural wonders and the public's access. 

Too often the natural wonders are protected, but access for the very people who pay for the park is increasingly difficult. 

Where you can wait for dinner

Next: More history of the struggles of the park

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Note: Data from NPS:

Campgrounds

• Yosemite Valley Family Sites: 459 sites accommodating 2,754 people (Note: only one Valley family campground is open for six months of the year)
• Tioga Road/Big Oak Flat/Hetch Hetchy: 856 sites for 5,136 people (Note: All of these sites are closed.)
• 
  
• Glacier Point/Wawona: 206 sites for 1,236 people (now closed)
• Group campsites: 14 group campsites (for 420 people); and 9 horse campsites (54 people) (Closed)

Source: NPS website

Why we need state parks - or not

Point Lobos SP

Camp Connell, CA -- In November voters in California are being asked whether or not they think state parks are worth saving for future generations.

I understand that not every voter or would-be voter sees the question as that significant. Some people, judging by the blogs and comments I have seen in recent weeks, think it is a simple matter of opposing a new "tax." Some think it is a "user's fee" and they don't see themselves as users. Others believe the legislature should just take care of it. (None of those positions is based in reality, but I'll try to keep this blog positive.)

I think the ballot proposition is important as a measure of what we truly value, and what investments we feel are worth protecting.

Mono Lake Tufa Towers SP

A grass roots collection of people who like state parks managed to get enough signatures to get Proposition 21 on the state ballot. This was not a push by a giant out-of-state corporation that wants to keep polluting, or even a political "reform measure" by Democrats or Republicans attempting to guarantee their party's futures.
It is not anti-union, or anti-business. About the only implied criticism in the proposition is that the California legislature is incompetent and/or corrupt, an opinion shared by a majority of Californians.
Park advocates in this state, mostly from non-profit organizations that support parks and recreation, see this as a way to protect the future, went to work, and got enough signatures to force an election issue.

Asilomar State Beach Park

Here's what the proposition will do if passed:
-- Create a stable source of funding for the long-neglected state parks system by charging $18 more annually for each private vehicle car tag (business and RVs are exempt). That will create enough money to operate all the state parks every year.
-- Provide every Californian driving a private family vehicle free admission to state parks, a bargain for frequent park users and an incentive for others.
-- Remove the need for the legislature to pay for state parks from the general fund, freeing millions of dollars for other essential state services.
-- Take park budgeting out of the hands of the legislature (which can't figure out how to write a workable budget) and the governor (who annually threatens to shut down parks).
-- Boost rural counties' economies by providing stability to parks that are often the largest tourist attraction in the region. (My county, for example, receives between $6 million and $10 million in revenues to local small businesses from our park's tourists every year.)
-- Protect a major contributor to children's education, both outdoor and historical.
-- Allow deferred maintenance, to the tune of billions of dollars, to be slowly caught up with. That means less broken toilets, flooded septic systems, and run down facilities.
-- Protect billions of dollars invested in rare, spectacular or unique treasures within the state. California parks include uncut Coastal Redwood trees, popular surfing beaches, historical treasures from the Gold Rush, the best Railroad Museum in the world, winter beach spots for tourists, critical habitat for endangered species, historic sites from World War Two and Giant Sequoia groves, to name a few of over 200 special places.
From the border below San Diego to the Oregon boundary, every Californian is within an easy half-day of some spectacular sanctuary or spot important to our sense of history.

Bodie Ghost Town SP


Here's what the proposition won't do:
-- Allow the legislature to tap into park funds to pay their own salaries, trips to Hawaii, or meet with corporate lobbyist. The funds will be secured against tampering.
-- Allow the governor to use parks and their employees as political chips in the endless game of chicken California loves so much.
-- Add any burden to the already struggling state treasury. It is entirely self funding.

Little organized opposition exists to the proposition, and it has lots of grass roots supporters though not much money is being spent.
But passage is far from assured due to several factors a work in California these days. Voters are really and truly fed up with state government. Some anti-tax groups are urging a no vote based on misunderstanding where the money comes from, and how it will be protected from the legislature. And really embarrassing to me, some of the state's newspapers have opposed the measure based on lack of research or understand of how the proposition will work.
And there's always the "what's in it for me" crowd that claim they never visit a state park and never will so don't want to pay anything to support them. These same people don't want to pay taxes for roads in another part of the state ("Never drive there...") or for any public schools or libraries or museums ("Don't have kids, don't read, don't look...)"

Angel Island SP, San Francisco Bay

Unless the voters understand what they are being asked, and what they stand to lose, I fear the measure will fail.

I don't want my children and grandchildren to miss out on all that the state parks provide, but if it fails I hope the governor shuts down every park in the state. I hope they padlock the gates, go into a mothball status, and then let the legislature and the voters see what they have done.

In a couple of years we will understand the important role parks play in our lives, and can begin to repair the damage.

My livelihood does not depend on the state parks staying open. The benefits I gain are more family oriented, as that is where we gather often to celebrate being together, and that is where I take long walks.
I also volunteer to keep the trails open (not enough maintenance staff), guide walks (not enough interpreters) and help people find their way (not enough directional signs).
But I can use my time doing other things, and can find another place to walk in the woods.

But I hate to think of the waste and short-sightedness that would create that situation.
-30-
Calaveras Big Trees State Park

For more on the campaign FOR state parks, go to the following web sites:

http://www.yesforstateparks.com

or

www.calparks.org

Retirement scorecard -- Give me a B!

Camp Connell, CA - I had simple goals when I retired six short years ago after 42 years working as a journalist:

-- Avoid wearing ties and suits;

-- Read more;

-- Complete a family history project begun in the 1930s by my grandmother;

-- Avoid meetings and committees;

-- Be outdoors more, and --hopefully -- use hiking and skiing as a way to stay in decent physical condition;

-- Go sailing more often;

-- Play more music;

-- Do something positive to protect the environment for those who follow;

-- Watch the trees, and my children and grandchildren, grow.

Here's a report on what I have done, with my wife's help, and the things that still need work.

I rarely put on a tie or suit. Almost never. They gather dust in the closet, and I am glad. I believe I actually am averaging once a year: four funerals and one formal dinner. In our mountain community we wear shorts to church in summer and snow boots in winter. If this were graded, I'd demand an "A."

I have read a lot of books. Currently I am reading two books a week, sometimes three. I was reading five a week but couldn't remember what I was reading! Most are paperback fiction by popular authors. I've read or re-read almost all the Tony Hillerman books about Navajo country, lots of Dick Francis' horsey mysteries and every spy/intrigue/cop novel I can find. I also have read extensively on the history and cultures of Scotland and Ireland, read about the history of the Mother Lode region where I live, and even read about Tristan Jones' sailing adventures, Bill Bryson's travels in Australia, some Leon Uris and MacKinley Cantor and "The Shack." A lot of my books come from the neighborhood used book store, and I have a paper bag full of books on my bedside table. I am currently reading a yellowed 1941 edition of an unusually well-written book called "The Last Frontier" by Howard Fast.
Lots of dead Lamonts in the churchyard near Dunoon, Scotland

My lack of progress on the family history project is an embarrassment. I've done more research, including trips across the country tracking LaMonts from earlier generations, and visited Scotland where the graveyards are filled with dead Lamonts, and Ireland where no one remembers them because they left for America in 1740. But despite good intentions, I have barely begun to write any of this into readable form except for a biography of my father which I posted as a blog. Maybe this winter. (I know, this deserves a "F.")

For the first few years after retirement I did quite well avoiding committees and meetings, and then I started volunteering for things that seemed interesting. At this point I am serving on two committees, two non-profit boards and one search committee, all of which I care about. I have mixed feelings about meetings, but once committed I tend to stay with it. (For mental health, I play poker with friends on a regular basis. We are definitely NOT a committee, though it is a non-profit endeavor.)
Not so hard at work in the South Grove of Big Trees

I have definitely been outdoors much more than in my office-bound days. I did a lot of beach-walking when we stayed in Florida for two years, and since coming home to the mountains hiking is a part of my routine. In the summer I probably hike (or saunter) 12 miles a week, sometimes more, most of it as a volunteer doing patrols or guided walks at the local state park. The average drops in winter when the snows come, but I still manage to ski and snowshoe fairly often. But my manly physique tends to portly, and the only changes I have made is that my belly has moved lower with age, and my butt seems to be disappearing. But I am OK with that.

Our time for sailing has suffered from too much other stuff, and distance. But we still have our sailboat Good News docked in Alameda, and we get down onto the water when we can. It's great therapy.

I am not satisfied with the time I take for music. I am just lazy. Unless I have promised to play guitar or sing somewhere, or attend a music function, the instruments remain encased. I do own three more instruments, having gained a mandolin and a dobro, and a "boat guitar," but I can't claim to have made much progress. This is true even though last weekend I sang "The Mississippi Squirrel Revival" with friends as a warm-up act at a local concert. Progress still needed.

I am spending a lot of time on my local environment, working in different ways to try and make things better. Pat and I both volunteered for six weeks of work in Yosemite National Park with the Yosemite Association after a 30-year love affair with that most beautiful of national parks. And we work regularly as docents at Calaveras Big Trees State Park. I lead guided walks among the Giant Sequoias and break trail for snowshoe walks in winter. This year I began working on the Trail Maintenance Crew. We normally work two days a week clearing trails (neglected for years by the idiot legislators who can't understand the need for park maintenance) and doing minor repair work. We have a great team filled with energy and spirit, and have managed to clean up every mile of every major trail in the 6,000 acre park this summer. It is enormously rewarding and a great learning experience. (Who else gets to see a bear in the wild on the way to work?) Our group includes experts on everything from biology to botany, wildlife to construction, so I learn something new every day I am in the woods. Join us when you are ready.
The work in the park led me to serve as a board member for the Calaveras Big Trees Association, the outfit that raises money for the park (so it won't fall apart due to neglect by the state). Concerns about my neighborhood in the forest also prompted me to serve on the board of a grass roots group called Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch which promotes good forestry practice, not the clear-cutting rape-the-land type practiced by some of our neighboring timber companies. I've learned a bit about Timber Harvest Plans (almost always approved by the state), and biodiversity and habitat protection. I just hope it is not too late.

Finally, Pat and I have had a wonderful chance to watch our grandchildren, and their parents, grow. Shortly after Pat and I moved to the mountains daughter Ruth and her husband Brian and children Delaney and Connor moved only 20 miles away, and we see them frequently. Then our son Zack moved here for a job, and last Spring his daughter Katie came to live with us. Katie and Delaney attend the same school, and Zack and I are co-coaches for Connor's soccer team.
So we now have our own family village.

I hope I have miles to go before I sleep, but I have no complaints. I just hope Grandmother LaMont's ghost will forgive me for not getting on with that family history project.

Not a bad place to do a little "work"

Turning bad environmental practice into a tax break

Camp Connell, CA -- The attached story was published in the Sonora Union-Democrat in response to SPI's announcement it was "saving" Giant Sequoias -- the largest trees in the world-- and going to get a tax break for doing it.
Why am I not celebrating?

The company press release did not mention that the only Giant Sequoias on SPI land are all recent plants, no giants actually, and "saving the Sequoias" has absolutely nothing to do with the remaining natural Giant Sequoia trees, scattered in only 75 groves along California's Sierra Nevada.

In fact, SPI clear-cut big timber right adjacent to the state and federally protected groves in Tuolumne County's portion of the state park, a cut that made both state and federal officials very nervous about the impact on habitats and watersheds. But not nervous enough to take on the politicians who benefit from SPI.

There are some planted Giant Sequoias outside of protected parks including in a subdivision and a park in Murphys, in cemeteries of pioneers, and eight within a quarter mile of our home all planted by early cabin builders.
None constitute a grove and no one gets a tax break for leaving them alone.

I have one growing on my deck in a bucket, but never thought to ask for a tax break. If I can get a million dollars from the government for a $6 seedling, I may want to participate.

Anyway, some more details are available at his link:

http://www.uniondemocrat.com/2009100698021/News/Local-News/SPI-offset-deal-scoffed-at-by-some-observers

and here's most of the story from the newspaper:


SPI offset deal scoffed at by some observers
Written by James Damschroder, The Union Democrat October 06, 2009 11:40 am

About a week after a new state program was adopted to allow polluters to buy carbon offsets from logging companies, environmentalists say their fears are coming to fruition: logging companies earning millions of dollars for disguised clear-cutting practices.

California’s largest private landowner and logging giant, Sierra Pacific Industries, recently entered into the nation’s largest forest carbon offset deal to date.


SPI claims the deal will sequester an additional 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide — equal to taking 300,000 cars off the road for a year — over the next five years.

The highlighted project in the deal will be to “protect in perpetuity” about 20,000 giant sequoias on over 60,000 acres of SPI land — most of which are in Tuolumne County, said Mark Pawlicki, SPI spokesman.

“The only little sequoias that are growing on SPI lands are a few scattered small trees amidst its mostly pine-tree plantations that have been planted after fires or clear-cuts,” said John Buckley, executive director of the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center.

Pawlicki admitted that the oldest of SPI’s giant sequoias are only about 30 years old, and many are just seedlings.

“They grow really fast, though,” he said. “They’re already big.”

Pawlicki wouldn’t say how much money SPI looks to gain from the deal — which came just a week after the program was pushed through the California Air Resources Control Board by the Schwarzenegger administration— but by all measurements it will be worth millions for the logging company.

Essentially, the program — called the Climate Action Reserve Forestry Protocol Version 3.0 — will allow industrial polluters, like power plants and oil refineries, to buy carbon credits from logging companies, like Sierra Pacific Industries, which adhere to forestry practices outlined in the plan.

This could become extremely profitable for logging companies, especially once Assembly Bill 32, the landmark global warming bill, goes into practice in two years. The bill will put caps on polluters so they have to either clean up their acts or buy carbon offsets.

SPI is one of the few logging companies that didn’t participate in an earlier version of the program, which did not allow clear-cutting practices.

In the new wording, according to a handful of environmental groups, the baseline is being set so low that SPI will be monetarily rewarded for its standard 17- to 20-acre clear-cuts. Environmentalists say it is already happening in this deal.

“This appears to be one of the biggest scams on the public that a lumber company and state officials have ever attempted to pull off,” said Buckley.

But SPI and Gov. Schwarzenegger say this is a landmark deal that will help stem global warming.

Gas prices, Spring, eBay, and good friends...

The news is good here this week in Camp Connell, as it always is, though the economic indicators are somewhat less certain. Here are some items to consider:

-- Gas prices hit $4.05 9/10 this past week at the local general store because the tanker arrived.

It appears that the big oil companies, Chevron in this case, set the price at the pump based on some mysterious formula and tell the local sales folks what to charge. Folks at the store this evening tell me they've seen prices as high at $4.29 in the San Francisco area, and the ski resort up the mountain charges more than our local store.
The price of gas doesn't seem like much of a big deal until you consider a long road trip. It was cheaper for Pat and me to fly to and from Mexico, even adding in the cost of an airport motel, than to drive. Next year we are hoping to go to Alaska, but driving seems a unlikely option.


--Weather report: the snow is melting in our front yard.

-- Today (Friday) was my last ski day of this season. The resort up the hill will be open two more days but we will be busy and it really isn't worth it as conditions are not great. The window for decent skiing is so small now, as the sun turns the icy snow into slush by noon, I'm starting to think about hiking at a lower altitude.
One act of faith: I purchased a season ski pass for next year.


-- Spring is officially here at Camp Connell. We have Crocus blooming, dozens of other bulbs fighting their way up into the sunshine -- some coming through patches of snow.
The other sure sign of Spring is that the work has resumed on the garage we were having built for last winter, but didn't quite make it. The site has been cleared of snow and tree debris, and the inspector came by yesterday and gave the go-ahead for pouring concrete on Monday to finish the slab. Then, if rafters and lumber can be found, the walls should start to go up.


Next week I have to arrange to have the snow tires removed from the Subaru. These are REAL snow tires, not your wimpy East Coast type that can stay on the car all summer.

And baseball season is underway for my 11-year-old granddaughter Delaney.

(UPDATE: The forecast calls for some rain mixed with snow in the middle of the week. No matter. It is still Spring.)



-- We have rented our former home in Sacramento after trying unsuccessfully to sell it for four months. As part of the cleaning out, I have vowed to sell off a bunch of small stuff on eBay. Made my first sale this week: a pair of commemorative drinking glasses with Apollo 13 designs. Sold for $1.29 (shipping was over $8, but the buyer in Iowa paid for that). The buyer sent me an email that said, "Say, are you the same LaMont that used to work for the TODAY newspaper in Florida?" Turns out he read the newspaper as a youth, and has been a space buff ever since.

-- Pat and I are back in school now, training the be docents at Calaveras Big Trees State Park. The park is only two miles away, and has over a thousand Sequoia trees, giant redwoods, big trees or -- if you are British -- wellingtonian.. Technically,they are Sequoiadendron Giganteum, and that's the sort of thing we are learning along with how to deal with drunken and rowdy campers (call the ranger). Should be fun this summer.

-- Coincidence, or not? I had a telephone call from Stan Rodimon this past week. Stan was a classmate at Marion Military Institute from 1957-1960, the school I wrote about recently, and then at the University of Alabama where we both graduated before going off into the Army and losing track of each other. He and his wife Linda were struggling married students when we last got together 46 years ago. They were good friends and interesting people. They promise to come see us this summer so we can do a bit of catching up. What a treat!

Yosemite: available to the highest bidder?

Camp Connell, CA -- Yosemite National Park has been a special and happy place for my family since our first visit on a snowy October years ago to a now-closed campground named Smokey Jack. It is not difficult to recall the wonder and awe the park inspired in us then.

Yosemite is still wonderful and awe-inspiring, but I am no longer as happy about it as I once was. I am, reluctantly, discouraged about the future of this unique public treasure.

Future generations better visit while they are young and strong enough to rough it in the wilderness, or rich enough to afford the rapidly climbing costs of visiting a national park. The rest of the public may be out of luck. Average Americans won't be able to get in because they won't be able to afford it.

I have visited six major national parks in recent years, but Yosemite is closest to my home and my heart.

And there are serious problems:
Too many people want too many different things from the stewards of our national parks; too many politicians and park managers accept short-term solutions to continuing problems, and too many people have made too many bad decisions in the past.

I am not optimistic about the future of this wonderful place.

Unless your grandchildren are rich, they may not get to enjoy it.

Yosemite National Park is becoming a public park for the wealthy.

Park employees are busy trying to survive in a nation where politicians believe all government services must pay for themselves with fees, Congressmen care more about reelection than preserving public access to precious public places, and concessionaires claim they do a better job than any one else so long as they are allowed a very good profit for their efforts. And because they complain louder and are better organized, local business interests, regional politicians and a handful of environmental organizations have far more say in decisions than the average taxpayer who paid for the park and keeps paying the bills.

This is not a new trend.

After Yosemite was "discovered" by white guys in the 1850s very few people came because it was hard to reach and expensive. Only a select few made the arduous trip by horseback or stage from the Bay Area until an enterprising promoter named James Mason Hutchins built a hotel and invited artists and photographers to visit and capture the beauty. He also published a popular magazine, in which he extolled the virtues of Yosemite and published their work. He did great PR. You can see his photograph in most early stereographs.
The Valley's popularity grew among those who could afford the trip. It was good for business.
Just like today.
A few hardy souls, more interested in nature and wildlife than hotels, camped along the river bank and enjoyed the scenery without paying for housing.
Just like today.

The Ahwahneechee tribe members that had lived in the Valley part-time were killed, run off, or reduced to servanthood in the name of Manifest Destiny. The remnants of the those people left today aren't in total agreement which tribe was where when, but they all know they were screwed out of a good deal and a lovely place to live.

Fast forward to recent years, and you'll notice that lots of people still love the place and want to visit. And the conflicts have not changed much, even though it is now a national park.
But, as a public park, it is becoming more and more expensive to visit.
Yosemite rangers do not see a lot of poor people coming into their park.

One reason has to be the cost of access.

When I recently planned a one-night off-season stay in Yosemite I went to the internet for a reservation since I did not want to try to camp in uncertain weather.
The one-night cost for rooms available with bath and heat ranged from $437 at the Ahwahnee Hotel to $147 at the Yosemite Lodge. Nothing was available at the Curry Village except tent cabins, with no bath and most with no heat.

A room without a bath was available at the Wawona Hotel, an hour outside the Valley but inside the park, for a $86.90 plus tax. I took it.

In four recent cross-country driving trips, I never paid more than about $100 for a comfortable clean room with a bath.

Over the past 27 years I have stayed at every Yosemite lodging available, from backpack camps to the Ahwahnee Hotel. (I can afford it, even if I worry because it excludes those who cannot.)
I can vouch for the fact that the Valley is beautiful.
And I can testify that most of the accommodations are just average, but nowhere near comparable in costs to similar places outside the park. And some are really worn, crowded, noisy and uncomfortable.

The Ahwahnee Hotel is an exception,it is a luxury hotel after all, but even so the rooms are just average -- in a pretty building a great location. The lobby and dining room are magnificent. If you can afford to eat there you should.

But if you want a luxury hotel in a pretty location in the Sierra Nevada you can go to Lake Tahoe and stay at a number of places for a lot less money than anything available in the park. The view at Tahoe is quite good, and you can hike or ski all day and gamble all night, if that's your thing.

Working families that live within a day's drive of the park are aware the entrance fee went from $5 per car to $20 per car in recent years. That was scheduled to go higher until the park service dropped that idea. Falling attendance at national parks everywhere might have played a part in the decision.

The median household income of all those people whom own the parks, is $48,000 a year(in 2006). The median American wage earner makes about $12.50 an hour.

Camping is about your only inexpensive option in the park if you can find a place available. Tent cabins, which are often available at average-motel prices can be crowded and noisy and cold.
If you happen to be old, require a toilet, and don't own an RV or want to sleep on the ground, be prepared to pay big bucks.


If you want to stay in a comfortable room the park, you'll pay resort prices.


I know that some people will disagree.

But those of us who live in California, near the highest-average-income regions of the nation, need to remember there's a lot of other people out there who helped pay for this park. They deserve a better chance to see what their tax dollars have purchased.

This situation is not necessary.
Accommodations in the park could be priced fairly within reach of average families.
Congress could provide the support the park needs to fix the things that are broken.
Concessionaires could accept lower profits.
Then we could all compete for the limited space available on an even footing, rather than being outbid because of money.

Whatever your view I encourage you to take part in the discussion by letting the park management or your local congressman, or both, know how you feel.

Another beautiful day in paradise

Patricia's World

Look but do not enter

The Aspen were aglow

The weather has been too beautiful to stay inside lately, so today after church, we returned home to change clothes and pack a lunch, then drove up the mountain to explore. We parked the Subaru at the Silver Lake trailhead just above Lake Alpine.

It took about an hour of steady walking to go down to our destination, Duck Lake. It was/is truly a lovely trail... beauty all around us.
The trees and ground smelled sweet from the recent rain and snow. Sky so blue, sunshine glowing through the trees.

We passed two couples each with little children in tow, so I thought that probably I could make it in and out again. The last part was all down hill (so you know what that means, it was uphill to get back to the car! ).

This beautiful little lake is in a small meadow surrounded by Lodgepole Pine and bright yellow Aspen. In the meadow also were three abandoned log cabins, all decrepit, ancient, falling down (don't go inside). One even had an old white enamel woodburning kitchen stove and kitchen sink. I guess they packed those in years ago. Lots of recent cow paddies all over the meadow from summer mountain grazing....and assorted other scat....coyote, deer, jackrabbit, and maybe a bear (hope so anyway, or it was one HUGE dog...or maybe it was a horse...)

We stayed there long enough to look around and take some pix and take a little rest. The hike out wasn't so bad. though it was pretty hard for me, being so out of shape and all, but I did make it, and Sanders didn't need to break out the M&Ms this time. Well, he didn't have any, but I think we may need them for another time...

Dinner later at the Lube Room around 5 p.m..gourmet hot dog and cheeseburger.

--PTL

We're okay, really

Camp Connell, CA- Part of learning to live in the mountains of
California is explaining to friends from other parts of the world that
every time they hear on TV that California is going up in flames, or
experiencing a destructive earthquake, it isn't necessarily happening
right here.
Jimmy Buffett sings about fires and earthquakes, and
non-Californians tend to think of this rather large state as one big
shake-n-bake zone. But this is a BIG state, and we rarely even know
there is a problem until our friends back east call and ask if we are
okay.
That doesn't mean that we are blase' about fires and quakes. A
few weeks ago I was at the computer late at night when a giant thump
shook the house. That was a small earthquake over on the east side of
the mountains, just a reminder that the earth has not settled down yet.

When you live in the middle of the forest and it doesn't rain for
months, you understand it's only a matter of time before something
will catch fire somewhere. A few days ago the temperature was in the
high 90s even way up here at 5,000 feet, and the humidity was 12%.
Folks in the South Lake Tahoe region learned about the vulnerability of mountain living a week
ago, and more than 200 families are homeless today as a result.
We could smell the smoke from those fires on the evening breeze, even though
it was almost 100 miles north of us. It was a reminder of the
risks of living here in the woods. Now, another really big forest
fire is burning a hundred miles or so to the south.
But we tend not to think about it till something happens close enough to home to get our attention,
even though we are isolated and the only people who live on our
dead-end dirt road.
Helicopters got our attention quickly last night, about the time we were sitting down to dinner.
We had just enjoyed our very first rainfall since March. We could hear the thunder booming higher
in the mountains, like the stories of ghost bowlers, and it reminded us
of Florida's great daily summer thunderstorms.
But the louder sounds
of helicopters and airplanes interfered with our quiet enjoyment of
nature's show and dinner, and pretty soon we were standing on the deck
watching helicopters carry buckets of water directly over our heads.
Not once, but time after time after time. We started sniffing for
smoke, but detected none.
Television or radio were useless, as
neither provide any local news coverage here. Even the local web site
for residents had nothing posted when I first checked.
So I jumped in the car and went to the source of all news in our area -- the Camp Connell Store. It was closed and no one was about.
Next stop, a quarter mile away, the Lube Room Bar & Grill. It stays open
late. Sure enough, a couple of neighbors were standing on the edge of
the meadow back of the bar watching a helicopter attach its big water
bucket before taking off over the ridge. But no one knew what was
happening, or where.
I saw a fire crew in fighting gear in a truck heading up the road.
Next stop was the ranger station up the road in the other direction. A young
couple was sitting on the steps of their home watching the air traffic.
Nothing special, he said, probably just crews knocking down spot fires
from the lightning. He didn't even have his official radio turned on to
eavesdrop.
So I drove back to the house, reasonably assured things
were fine, and we started talking about what if the danger had been
real. What would we do? What would we take? Where would we go?
Pat made a list.
What's important enough to grab and run out the door? Family photos and
papers, checkbooks, keys and of course the computers. Oh yes, and my
good guitar and her hammered dulcimer.
Everything else can, and probably will, burn if a big forest fire comes our way.
That's just the way it is when you enjoy the pleasures of living in the forest.
Later in the evening a neighbor posted an update on the local website after talking to the local firefighters: lightning strikes triggered two small fires on the ridge above our house, a mile or so away, and crews were on the scene and would stay there till morning. Everything, we were told, was under control.
Irony Footnote:
Sierra Pacific Lumber,the Great Satan of tree cutters in the western U.S., may have made us a bit safer by clear-cutting swaths all around our community, whacking down thousands of trees within miles of our home. I doubt it actually helps,
but you can see what they have done to the once beautiful forest on
Google Earth by plugging in "Fly to 129 Campbell Lane, CampConnell California, 95223."