Dear Yosemite,
I’m going to be brutally honest… I thought you were probably overrated. Yes, I’ve seen videos of climbing Half Dome and countless documentaries of rock climbers summiting El Cap, but to be honest, I was so much more enthralled with the human element than you. I’d seen all kinds of Instagram and Facebook posts about you, but I didn’t get that you’re truly that impressive.
When we first rounded the corner on Wawona road, and I first peeped Half Dome, I knew my heart was about to be stolen. My eyes filled with tears at Tunnel View when I looked into the Valley. In that moment, I got it. I finally understood that to visit Yosemite is to love Yosemite.
John Muir was speaking of your mountains when he now famously wrote, ‘The mountains are calling and I must go’. He worked his ass off to make sure that you were preserved, funded, protected. I am forever grateful to him because a little piece of your mountains will forever be calling and a piece of me will always be aching to get back to you.
The cool fall weather and rain gave you the perfect moodiness for you to just keep giving us spectacular opportunity after spectacular opportunity to check out your varying landscapes. We got to see Half Dome swaddled in clouds, the milky way over El Cap and the most epic sunset from Sentinel Dome. You allowed me to meet a rock climbing legend and to watch other amazing climbers make their way up El Cap in both day and night. I got to touch the nose of El Cap and daydream about how that must feel to be suspended from the side of it and ultimately stand atop it.
We saw fog settle into the valley and rise overhead. I felt the spray of the tallest waterfall in North America. I saw multiple waterfalls that should’ve been dry, but you graced us with their beauty even this late in the season. You just gave us the perfect first visit to Yosemite.
The beautiful feeling of my insignificance on this planet was so magnified by the peaks rising up around me, the giant sequoias growing here and the power of water + glaciers that created you. Thank you for reminding me that I am just a small part of this larger thing, and for allowing me to get to share such a beautiful place with some of the people I love most in this world.
I can’t wait to get back and see you time and time again. I foresee you being a part of our lives in the way that Moab is to us. A home away from home. A place we feel both at home in and full of wonder at getting to visit. Until next time, know you’re in my mind.
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