Rain at Last

At long last we had a rain, a good steady all night rain.  Chris had come to Coarsegold to spend my last weekend here with me and mid-morning on Saturday it stopped raining. There were reports of snow at Fish Camp so we though we would go take a look, cameras in hand.

Fish Camp had snow but the lighting was poor.  We were so close we decided to go on into the south entrance of Yosemite. We didn't go as far as the valley; we didn't need to.   The view from the lookout at the tunnel was stunning and kept changing as the storm cleared.  I'm including a whole series here.   If you run through them quite quickly you will get a feel for the changing light.  We were there for about an hour, although we spent 10 minutes in the car shortly after arriving as it rained.  Then we returned to our spot and shot again.  After going through quickly you can return and look more slowly.   The last two are of dogwood  which was in full bloom.

The light was magic.  Twice there were rainbows, one lying low in the valley.  Half Dome never made an appearance, but sometimes the light hit the valley, sometimes Bridal Veil Falls, sometimes El Capitan.  The first photo show how it looks when we arrived.  It was pretty socked in and we were not sure how it would photograph.  But after the rain, it was a constantly changing light show.

It rained just moments after taking this photo.

 The rain was welcome.  Hardly enough to ease serious drought conditions, and the snow didn't last, but it cleared the air, put a little moisture in the soil.  We loved it.  And in the motorhome, the sound is delightful.

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The rain began in the valley before it hit us, and created a low lying rainbow

El Capitan through the clouds

The Dogwood was in bloom

The blooms were prolific

 Other news.  I am ready to head out on April 30, for a leisurely trip to Yellowstone for another season as a photo tour guide, driving the elegant old 30's model White Touring cars, which are yellow.  White was the manufacturer.

There was one chore to complete before leaving, in addition to the normal ones.  The bed in my motorhome is next to the ceiling when I am not using it.  It goes up and down on a rail with a small cog motor.  Over the 11 years I have owned this house on wheels, the bed has gotten out of alignment, once because the old curtains caught in the cogs, once because I had failed to remove the fastener before bringing it down, once something else was in the way.   With help of folks here at the Park of the Sierras, the issue is fixed.  Ray Wiley led me to a chat room and then went through it, pulling up the pertinent instructions; Gia and Elaine were over one day and Gia looked at it and made some great observations, and then Ron Jones came over and actually did the physical fix.   Gia was right, the cogs were getting worn on one side and were only about a quarter of the way on the track. Now it is much better and I thank all my good friends.  Ron saved me once before.  I was at the Elks Lodge in Oceanside but needed to leave (mom had had a heart attack...I flew up but once she was stable I went back to get my motorhome and return to stay awhile).  The steps would not retract and stay put.   As I was trying to figure out how to bungee cord them, Ron and Val came walking across the parking lot.   They had pulled in the night before.   We were old friends, but had no idea we would meet up there.  Ron fixed it and I was on my way.  This is one of the joys of the people one gets to know on the road.