The Most Popular of Places
Crowds make me anxious, and that’s been my excuse for not visiting Yosemite National Park since my family and I moved to California from the east coast six years ago. I’ve been there – decades ago during a legendary family cross-country station wagon trip – but nothing more recent. So last week, when my husband got a last minute assignment in the park, I decided to tag along. When he finished his work, the surplus of visitors was no excuse for not taking advantage of our location. We rose early for a hike and were rewarded with some incredible views along with a great trailside conversation with a young man who was just completing a stint on the John Muir Trail.
We rewarded ourselves further with a late lunch at the historic Yosemite Majestic Hotel, formerly known as The Awahnee. The food was good, but a leisurely post-meal conversation with our waiter Marty, who has been waiting tables in the stunning dining room for 37 years, was almost the best part. He told us about Queen Elizabeth’s visit in 1983, waiting on various celebrities over the years, and why he’s stayed in one job for so long. (Basically, location, location, location.) The restaurant was nearly empty when we finished, but we fought bumper to bumper traffic trying to get out of the park. Fortunately, the memories of the crowds will fade, while those of the other-worldly beauty and shared conversations will linger.
The other thing that will stay with me is the cover image, which I took with my iPhone. Yosemite is a staggeringly beautiful place so good photos are not hard to come by. But this one – captured just as the light began to stream into the valley – was especially well-timed.
