From a lifetime in Yosemite Valley

Photo credit: Toby Manzanares

Ahh… Yosemite, one of my favorite places, where you can enter a rainbow.

The best way into Yosemite Valley is through the tunnel, an experience described by some as akin to being born.

"A long dark tunnel, with a far away bright light, which after a moment appears to grow larger... and larger until you burst through into a bright and beautiful place that other's say: "Looks like heaven."

Slow down as you exit the tunnel to turn left into the view point parking lot, where my students often took their first group photo (with Bridalveil Falls in the background.

Then drive on to the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center where, Park Rangers will provide maps and up to date information. It's a great place to start your visit.

Also on this map, the Ahwahnee Hotel which has a wonderful breakfast at a reasonable price in a national historic site. Charming when you look out to find deer grazing just a few feet away.

The 1.5 mile hike to the Vernal Fall Footbridge usually takes one to one and a half hours. For the 2.4 mile hike to the top of the Vernal Fall count on roughly 3 hours.  Experiencing the Mist Trail is worthy of the time and effort.  Take a rain poncho, the “mist” is sometimes thick.

I’d walk students through the Mist Trail rainbow, a vivid memory, the mist and rainbow colors, to last a lifetime. 

 

"Doc" Ricketts, John Steinbeck, Monterey and the Sea of Cortez

"The tide teaches us to live with mystery and complexity. It lives in the body of a mud shrimp, signaling when to swim and when to burrow. It lives in sandpipers, crabs, and whelks. It lives in the spirit of bores, in the prayers of monks. The tide is vibration, music, time."  —Jonathan White, Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean

Waiting for Doc to answer the door, I knock again, but the timing is off (about 80 years.)  He's not here, but I more clearly imagine Ed Ricketts and John Steinbeck just inside.

Teaching biology has so many wonderful parts like when students are able to connect the dots, especially when two seemingly different worlds collide. The worlds of literature and biology.

My favorite biologist, Ed Ricketts, and my favorite novelist, John Steinbeck, spent some of the richest moments of their lives, here just inside this door at 800 Cannery Row in Monterey California. Here is where they planned their expedition to the Sea of Cortez. 

Image credit: Jeffrey M. Banister, Journal of the Southwest, Vol. 62, Number 2, Summer 2020

Click HERE for an 80 year retrospective on the Log of the Sea of Cortez

The Log of the Sea of Cortez 

To do:  vet the video below