Tripping: The Almighty Yosemite Valley
The Almighty Yosemite Valley
Yosemite is amazing. I don’t have the words for it. I’ll let a more poetic soul than myself give you a description:
“…full of God’s thoughts, a place of peace and safety amid the most
exalted grandeur and enthusiastic action, a new song, a place of
beginnings abounding in first lessons of life, mountain building,
eternal, invincible, unbreakable order; with sermons in stone, storms,
trees, flowers, and animals brimful with humanity.” -John Muir
Thank you once again John Muir. One of history’s greatest men, imo.
But I’m here too, and we’ll all be history one day, so we better come correct. What I lack in word-putting-together-skills, I try my best to make up for through drawing. Thats my mark on the world.
I got a lot of good work done and i want to share ot with you. Check it out.
View from halfway up to Glacier Point. I wasnt prepared to make it all the way, so I sat down and sketched when I felt a heart attack was eminent.
And on the way back down I went 1v1 with the Sun. I think everyone can see who won.
Does Yosemite Need A Facelift?
Turns out it does. Every year hundreds of people come out to the valley to clean up trash and fix up the park. I was happy to take part in this and did a planting project and trail removal, as well as hauling out some pounds of trash myself.
View of El Capitan from our lunch spot during the trail removal in El Capitan Meadow. It was more fun than it sounds!
A forum on sustainable products held during the event. I was most interested in the camera guy and the park ranger doing the ASL translation.
We had a good time and helped the park. Everyone was very appreciative and thankful for our service. I recommend doing the Yosemite Facelift and I will probably go back in the future. If you want more information, check out this link.
The High Country
An overnight backpacking trip out past Saddlebag Lake. What a day!
I also did a short backpacking trip. Unfortunately I didnt get any good sketches. The cold and hail took all the fight out of me.
Way too cold to sit in one place for an hour and draw. The mountains said better luck next time!
This was part two of my series on this trip to the Sierras. Read part one here. I had a great time. It was nice to be alone, exploring nature. It was also nice to see people. In all, it was well balanced for me.
I would like to make this kind of art and exploration a bigger part of my work. I think I can provide a unique view on the world that could be of value to people. Let me know in the comments if you want to see more posts like this. And tell me where to go next!
As a reward for reading this far, here’s a video of me seeing a tiny frog:
Thank you for reading. Keep exploring, people. And if you get a chance to go to Yosemite, do it!
-Samwise
SCL