Home Sweet Home

Well, this isn't home. Home is in Santa Maria with my family, my bonsai trees and two cats that I don't claim. But this is the cabin that the government rents to me during my summers in Wawona. This is a duplex. My housemate and I live on the right side. In the past twenty seasons, this duplex has has been home about fifteen times. It's small but well situated near the library, the Pine Tree market, the weight room and a great swimming hole. I've been told that earlier in the life of this building it was originally the restaurant run by the May family. (The cabin next door used to be the movie theater.)

My housemate had decorated the cabin before I arrived. I have yet to meet him, but I'm guessing that he is a veteran seasonal employee. Notice the storage boxes concealed as a window cabinet. Also, the eye-catching beach towels used in camouflaging the NPS sticky, plastic Naugahyde-covered chairs. This guy is a pro. Martha Stewart eat your heart out.

I cleverly photoshopped the microwave out of the photo.

I know that after viewing these photos, many of you are wishing I would invite you to enjoy a few days of luxuriating in this splendor. Unfortunately, NPS rules forbid overnight guests. But if you visit I might microwave dinner for you.

Back in the day...

Okay, this isn't exactly a photo of Wawona, and I didn't take the picture. In fact I wouldn't be born for another forty or so years. But I love this photo of my grandpa at Glacier Point.

My grandparents loved the out-a-doors. I have a collection of photos taken on this trip to Yosemite, as well as some of their other camping adventures during the early 1920's.

                                                                    The Wawona Tunnel Tree.

Shame on Great Grandpa Elias. Somethings don't ever change, unfortunately.

Hope the fishing was better... back in the day!

I've had some days off of work so I've been home in Santa Maria for the last few days. Back to the park tomorrow. I'll get back to work and also back to posting some of my own photos!

Mountain Lady's-Slipper (Cypripedium montanum)

Neither does the wisest man exhort nature’s secrets, and lose his curiosity by finding out all of her perfection. Nature never becomes a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they delighted the simplicity of his childhood.

Nature     Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

This orchid has to be one of my favorite wildflowers. It is gorgeous! It is also quite rare. Furthermore, it is usually done blooming before I arrive in Wawona in mid-June. Each year when I first arrive, I go searching for this elusive flower. Sometimes I find it and sometimes I don't. This year was a bonanza!

Historically, the root of Lady's Slipper was used as a sedative to treat anxiety, stress and even epilepsy.

Some of these forest photos were shot near dusk. I needed a little more light on the flowers, so I took off my lightly colored tee shirt to use as a reflector (Good thing I was deep in the woods!). I was laying on the ground with ants crawling beneath me and mosquitoes swarming above, so I hope you enjoy my efforts.

If you are interested in learning more about this beautiful flower click the link to my co-worker, Ranger Bob's explanation why he considers this plant to be deceitful!

http://bit.ly/aRNVwo

Leaping Water

Chilnualna Falls may mean "Leaping water" in a Native Indian dialect. This has been a wet year, and as the snow melts at higher elevations the water in Chilnualna Falls is certainly leaping.

I like the many moods of the falls. I hope to walk to the Upper Falls on Friday (about an eight mile round trip with an elevation gain of about 2500 feet). If I get up early enough I can complete the hike before reporting to work at 12:30.

Which photo do you like best? #1 or #2 or #3? (You can enlarge images by clicking on them.)

Alone-a in Wawona

Welcome to Wawona, CA. This is where I spend my summers. You've never heard of Wawona? What if I told you that I spent my summers in Yosemite National Park? I do both because Wawona is a small community located in Yosemite.

For many tourists, Wawona is hardly more than a speed bump on the road to Yosemite Valley, as they race to see roaring waterfalls, massive cliffs and maybe a bear. This blog is my attempt to introduce the viewer to another part of Yosemite National Park, a quieter, more relaxed area known as Wawona.

The entries in this blog will not follow any logical sequence. Primarily, my camera will dictate the daily topics. I don't promise to follow the Element of Style as I write my entries, but I will try to carry my camera around in order to capture visual slivers of my summer in Wawona.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Jeff. For the past twenty summers I've been Ranger Jeff. I work as a naturalist in the southern portion of Yosemite. Each season I rent a house from the federal government... well, it is actually just part of a house because  each year I have a new housemate that shares my summers with me. Sometimes these fellow rangers become great friends; other years they remain nearly the same stranger I met in June. I entitled the blog "Alone-a in Wawona" since every summer I have had to leave behind those dearest to me, my family, since there is no family housing for seasonal workers.

If you are guilty of visiting Yosemite and speeding past Wawona, perhaps you recall a quaint hotel and  golf course near the south entrance of the park. Congratulations, you just passed Wawona! During the next seveal weeks, I'll try to make a daily entry to show you what you missed.

This first entry will be a few photos of the hotel since that is the most prominent landmark in the Wawona basin. Most of my entries will have more photos and less words. Promise.