Cedar & Sand: Yosemite National Park

I didn't look into Yosemite campground reservations until about a week before our trip. Big mistake. This park is ridiculously busy, and so of course everything was booked solid. I started to look at private campgrounds outside the park and even considered just bagging Yosemite all together. On a whim, I rechecked the campground reservations website a couple of days later, and thankfully there had been a cancellation and I was able to get a spot at North Pines campground in the main valley.

Aside from all of the great scenery, I was excited to check out Yosemite's 3000-foot granite cliffs that have produced some impressive rock falls in recent years. The Utah Geological Survey produced a study on rock-fall hazard in Zion National Park and we employed some of the same methods pioneered in Yosemite. You don't need a geology degree to see that many Yosemite structures, campgrounds, and crowded hiking trails are in high-hazard zones. Yosemite rock falls have killed several people in the past, and more injuries and fatalities are a certainty in the future. The high risk has prompted a new, comprehensive cooperative study between the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey that has resulted in set-backs, and plans to permanently close or move some park facilities.

Lower Yosemite Falls.

Rafters on the Merced River below Yosemite Falls.

Bridge over the Merced River near North Pines campground.

Small pond near North Side Drive.

Tenaya Creek and the lower slopes of North Dome.

Glacier-carved Tenaya Canyon and Half Dome. The massive 2009 Ahwiya Point rock-fall scar and debris field can be seen downslope and slightly upcanyon from Half Dome.