In a message dated 11/18/2009 12:04:21 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes: Actually it's not the herd instinct I was thinking of, it's the road. I'm quite shocked by the photograph - it's the first time I've seen outside the frame of that view, and I had always thought that it was wilderness that took a bit of effort to get to.
Bob ============= Nyah, there is a road around the park to various vista points. Though a lot of the very well-known vista points are only accessible by hiking. (There are a lot of hiking trails. Re Ansel, some of his shots were taken from vista points near the roads, but a lot were taken from places he hiked to.) There are three places to stay in the park, mainly rustic, or rustic to a degree. They were originally run by the park service (now they are run by an outside company for the park service), and several camping sites. But, overall, they keep it pretty natural. There are strong rules/laws about not disturbing things, and they tend to let nature take its course. For instance, let trees grow up. It appeared to me that the valley floor is going to grow more and more trees (I spotted small pines that weren't there three years ago, or not as big yet anyway) and soon parts of it won't be as accessible by foot anymore. Also they say, in their brochure, that mirror lake will eventually fill in with silt. It's an ongoing process, that has been going on for a long time and not too far off mirror lake won't exist anymore. (Taking Half Dome reflected in mirror lake is a well-known shot, that one is only accessible by hiking.) The roads in to it, not in it, are winding and narrow and take a while, and not everyone's cup of tea, but not bad. Certainly, in my opinion not as bad as the one going down Mt. Lassen (which I wouldn't attempt, too scary -- it had no retaining wall. The roads going into Yosemite have low, rock retaining walls that were built-in Roosevelt's day by the conversation corps he set up.) And, thanks, Bob, that why I showed it. To show behind the scenes. Too many landscape shots, I feel, don't actually show how-things-really are. They just show the beauty. It is one of my problems with landscape shots, or beautiful landscape shots, is that they tend to lie, sometimes lie a lot. Like trash piles or polluted places or smog or environmental degradation of some kind right near a great shot. Not that they have that in Yosemite, but you get the idea. And I certainly see that a lot of time in other places. But not in our State and National Parks, that are sort of "nature preserves." Marnie --------------------------------------------- We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. Albert Einstein -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
