NCal 08 Yosemite

 

Yosemite has to be one of the most spectacular spots on our planet.  3.7 million people visit this incredible 7 square miles each year.

The original land was preserved by an act of congress passed by Abraham Lincoln. Unfortunately, Lincoln never got to visit the park.

Two photographers are credited with creating and publicizing the park.  In the 1860s, Carleton Watkins created some of the first and most important photographs of the Yosemite region.  Ansel Adams first visited Yosemite with a camera at age 14 and returned until his death in 1994.  He said “I knew my destiny when I saw Yosemite.”

The legacy of Yosemite, Watkins, Adams and Theodore Rosevelt are felt throughout the world.  Never before had humankind left the legacy of the land. Now, here and in the far corners of the planet, we preserve the land, the ecology, the flora and the fauna – the ingredients of life.  We all enjoy and pass to future generations.

NOTE: MANY MORE PHOTOS OF YOSEMITE ARE IN THE SLIDE SHOW. SEE THE RIGHT HAND COLUMN – CLICK ON THE SHOW – USE F11 TO GET FULL SCREEN.

We are in Yosemite on Tuesday, June 29.  There are thousands – maybe 10’s of thousands with us – from all nations, all age groups, all economic levels.  We all get along.  I am really impressed by the staff of the Park Service. They provide food, lodging (from camp grounds, to cheap tent cabins like we were in last night, to the lodge where I am now, to extremely expensive, $500+++ day suites), transportation (50 passenger hybrid-busses with 80 people aboard), etc. for all of us. I’m amazed they do this with such patience and grace.  This morning at breakfast, the young lady taking our money of the buffet, asked each of us what we’d done yesterday or what we were going to do today. As soon at the bar-tender or the clerk sees our credit card, he/she calls us by our first name.  This is service. This is your federal government at it’s very best.  Some things – war, parks, welfare and health care – should not be based on profit.  They should be based on the general good of the governed.