Yosemite in brief

The way into Yosemite is almost familiar, a landscape shown to us so many times in movies and episodes of the Simpsons. There are tall evergreen trees and log lodges, with bears carved by chainsaw from the trunks of trees. But before this familiar, and expected landscape, there where the fields of wheat grass, the rocky outcroppings of hills, the odd tree. A terrain I associate more with the great plains and places like Wyoming than California. Finally arriving at the park, We entered from the south, but were saddened to find that all the snow in the park had not been cleared, and we wouldn't be able to reach Glacier Point, and also would not be able to drive Tioga road, through the main portion of the park, allowing us quicker, more scenic access to Lake Tahoe in the evening. However, this was more than made up for by what lay ahead.

After passing a turnoff, that would have taken us to Glacier Point if it were open, we passed through a tunnel, and parked at the overlook on the other side. And there before me lay a valley. Half Dome, clearly visible to the back, bridal veil falls throwing off mist well above the treetops, and sadly, a thick haze of smog. To which our own car, I'm sure, contributed. Still, it's an awe inspiring view.

Continuing down into the valley, we finally came to the parking lot for bridal veil falls. Keep in mind, this was in May, and the flow was very strong with the runoff of melting snow. The parking lot was partially flooded, and as we set out on the trails to the fall, we were enshrouded in a misty rain, the famed veil itself. the paved path was wet, and as we progressed, flooded to ankle height with fairly fast moving, icy water. We realized at this point, that the view we had had of the falls from the overlook was really the only one possible, because at this point, we were sort of in the falls. Suddenly, all the people wearing raincoats in the parking lot on this clear and sunny day, made sense. No photos where to be had, as 10 feet away was a solid white, from the fine grains of rain, that were rapidly soaking us to the bone, so, back we headed to the car, ready to travel into the valley itself. Once on the valley floor, we parked the car, and headed off along a trail through the meadow that occupies much of the flat bottom of the valley. Here the sight of woodpeckers and stellar jays were common place.

We headed across the meadow, to the trail leading to the base of Lower Yosemite Falls. Unfortunately, because I am insane, and determined to see a little of ALL the world has to offer, I hadn't given us time to hike the trail to the upper. The path to the lower falls is wheel chair accessible, and wide, to accommodate all the visitors received here. The falls themselves are huge, seeing as how they come rushing over the very top of this glacially carved, steep walled canyon. The people here spoke a myriad of languages. Truly, the world comes to see this place.

Finally, we had seen all that I had really wanted to see, that could be seen, that we had time to see. So we headed to the visitors center, to learn a little about the founding of the park, and about John Muir, who lived for a time on the banks of the stream, just down from the Yosemite Falls. We checked the book shelves for the Audubon guide book for California, once again coming up empty handed, though we had checked most parks since we had started our trip. We hoped on the buses that transfer the loads of tourists, of all nationalities, about the canyon floor, and just road it for a full circuit, then back to our car. We left the park through the northern Oak Flat Entrance, so we missed both the supposedly beautiful Tioga Road, and also the El Portal entrance to the park, which angles directly towards the coast. But we weren't headed back to the coast, not yet. That evening's destination was Lake Tahoe.

The Wall

After leaving the Capitoline Museum, our initial destination was the Christian Catacombs of St. Callixtus. Unfortunately, we were not to visit. In our attempts to reach the catacombs, we were met by a police officer who turned us away without explanation. We circled around and tried the street from a different direction, only to be turned away again. Thinking we could outsmart the authorities, we tried still another small side street that might give us access to the area, only to find that the gentleman walking idly down the street was yet another polizi who turned us away. At the point we had expended most of the time allotted for visiting the catacombs, and we relented, and turned towards the day's final destination: the small town of Arpino.

On a hill above the city of Arpino, along long and winding road are some interesting walls. The area is often called civitavecchia. The walls are megalithic, that is, they are made of huge rocks. The best description on the Internet can be found here. Despite the fact that further information was difficult to find, I decided that this was one site I did not want to miss, providing some insight into yet another of the many cultures which have lived and died within Italy's present day borders.

Finding the town was easy enough, finding the road up the hill to the walls was not to difficult, and missing the wall was impossible. We parked our car in a grass field, with many others. It was early evening, and the sunlight was just beginning to take on the golden red hue of late summer. The grass beneath out feet was brittle and hot. The other cars belonged to several local families. They had with them their children who were all dressed as angels, with a single, Christmas light bulb glowing from the halos on their heads. From up the road came a young girl all dressed in white, escorted by her father. One of the children carried a sign which labeled the gathering as honoring the virgin Maria. We moved through the crowd and across the street to investigate the wall, and the tower. The area of the tower is reached through a pointed arch, which is plenty large enough to drive a small car through.

It is difficult to appreciate the scale in pictures because the mind just assumes the rocks are smaller than they are. So, I including Jake, who is 6'3" for scale.

The tower, which was built much later, and by different people than the walls was an interesting bonus feature of the location.

And I couldn't resist a picture of the olives growing on the tree there

The view from withing the walled area was wonderful that day

We began to walk the trail which followed the outside of the wall, when I first heard the singing. It did not come from the children, but from far
away. Looking down the hill, I spied along the winding road a long line of people, 5 or 6 abreast, marching up the hill, and they were singing as the sun was setting.

As we were returning to the car, a little boy looked at me and smiled. He had dark hair and light blue eyes. On the way back down the hill, came upon the people marching. One gentleman leading, with several rows of official looking church officials, wearing velvet robes, followed by the masses, who were dressed surprisingly casually. Beyond them were abandoned tables, which had distributed water. It was quite a hill after all.

This is probably one of the most perfect and memorable moments of the entire trip.

After arpino, we turned our smart car towards Pompeii. The traffic in Pompeii is extremely crowded. The skill we learned driving in Rome came in very handy here, though the traffic moved at a snail's pace. We were quickly learning that you must drive like you own the place. After finding and checking into our hotel, we headed to a pizzeria just down the hill from the entrance to the old city. I had oiled pasta with chicken and vegetables. It was good. While we ate we watched several women work the street. One young lady spent quite some time talking to one man in a car, until a police officer showed up, whereupon the women drifted casually into the crowd. We stayed the night at the Villa Dei Mysterie, which was quite nice, and had a nice pool we did not get to use. It would be an easy walk from the hotel to the entrance to the old city in the morning.