I Believe It Is Magic
California
02 CHAPTER
YOSEMITE
PARK
If it was possible to create different perfumes associated with the places you visit, the perfume called "Yosemite National Park" would've smelled something like this: a very strong scent of pine needles, mixed with flavorful, but bitter bouquet of various fragrances including tar, pine cones, a very subtle presence of citrus aroma, fresh mountain air, and the fragrant odor of wildflowers. I fell in love with this place, from the very first "scent"! In contrast to the big city of San Francisco, the forest road that led to the park was filled with different scents. At some point, we even stopped to just breath the air.
Mist trail - we got drenched
In Yosemite National Park, we only had a couple of days. In such a fabulous place, you need to stay for at least a week! It was necessary to see something great in a short period. There are numerous treks in the park, with different levels of complexity. We decided to go on the “mist trail” trek, which led to a picturesque waterfall called Vernal Fall and learned the hard way why this place was named misty!
While climbing up to the Vernal Fall, we saw a group of young people walking down totally drenched. We glanced at each other with doubt but continued our journey. The waterfall finally emerged before us, and a multi-colored rainbow framed it. A giant granite staircase leading directly towards the "sky" arose before us. At first, small droplets rained down, and then a stream splashing in all directions from a waterfall began to shower us. In a matter of seconds, we were completely soaked! The streams were running down our cheeks, into the mouth, nose, eyes, and then all of it slid inside pants. The sneakers began to grow heavy from the abundance of liquid that had leaked there. The boulders we climbed became quite slippery, and the path along the edge of the wet and foggy canyon seemed no longer harmless!
There was a crucial moment near the top of the waterfall. It was spraying so hard that I was ready to turn back without any regrets! But when I inhaled more air into my lungs, I swept through the wet stone slabs, avoiding puddles in the crevasses. Finally, the hardest part of the trek ended. The forest loomed ahead where we had the opportunity to rub our faces and breathe. After that, it became easier. Our path was no longer covered with spray from the waterfall. The granite stairway was completely dry and less dangerous.
We returned to the camp site completely drenched. It was getting cold. The “forest tent” became our temporary shelter. Instead of a door, we had two curtains that tied up together with a string. Realizing that we were not destined to dry our clothes under such conditions, we climbed inside the car and turned the heater on to the maximum, until we felt a little bit warmer. We sat there for a very long time, filling ourselves up with alcohol and cheese. It started to get dark, and people have scattered around in their tents. Some people wandered in the darkness with flashlights, others burned fires, while we almost fogged our car windows with warm breaths. Cold substantially receded. After a while, we started to move towards our tent by touch while laughing out loud. Defrosting and alcohol did their job. Wrapped up under the thick blankets, we could not sleep all night long. It was freezing, and nothing helped! We used all the warm things we had on us. Hoods covered our heads; blankets concealed everything except the sticking noses, which eventually froze up. I could see the evening sky through a rather wide gap under the so-called roof. At night, the entire cosmos was visible through that opening from my bunk bed. I could hear every small movement and every rustling sound outside. The possibility of a bear visiting, while we were asleep, could become a reality, but thanks to God, we didn’t have any encounters that night! Sleeping outside in the forest had its charm, but in the morning, everything hurt, including my throat.
