Re: Photos from our trip last week

48 photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8601704@N06/sets/72157619609363770/

Interesting. I thought 'Stately Pleasure Dome' was just one of the Polly Dome(s).

It's right in front of Polly.

Here's a link that points it out. Right by Tenaya Lake.

http://www.trailbehind.com/node/1148091/#get_map_from_node/8891712

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Old Dude

It's literally right next to Tioga Road, on the other side of the road from Tenaya Lake. They get out of their car and they are at the base of the wall. I could hear them talking to each other up there on the wall.

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Bob Weaver
It's literally right next to Tioga Road, on the other side of the road from Tenaya Lake. They get out of their car and they are at the base of the wall. I could hear them talking to each other up there on the wall.

Here are a couple items from a climber's website:

Especially for Vince:
http://www.camp4.com/words/index.php?newsid=603

Especially for QB:
http://www.camp4.com/rock/index.php?newsid=516

My point was I didn't know it had a 'real' name. My guess is that it is just a name
rock climbers have been calling it and it's nothing 'official'.

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bill-e-g
Interesting. I thought 'Stately Pleasure Dome' was just one of the Polly Dome(s).

No "(s)" - there is only one Polly Dome.

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bill-e-g
My point was I didn't know it had a 'real' name. My guess is that it is just a name
rock climbers have been calling it and it's nothing 'official'.

Probably the origin. However, it has been in common use for a rather long time (I seem to remember it being called that waaay back in 1968 when I first arrived in YNP). The Wilderness Press 15' topo of Tuolumne Meadows lists three 'named' domes going NNE from Tenaya before reaching Polly; they are called Stately Pleasure, Harlequin, and Mountaineers. None of these names appear on any USGS maps that I have ever seen.

[Unfortunately, they don't designate Marmot Dome on that map. You know where it is if you are a member of "The Friends Of Marmots Society."]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/2009 09:35PM by szalkowski.

It doesn't appear in GNIS.

Thanks Len. That's the info I like...

How about:

Whizz Domes?
Daff Dome?

Those are on my Wilderness Press Map of Yosemite.

Also on my map is Little Devils Postpile. Eeek, got any peeektures of that?
Wanna check that out via the "other" way to Glen Aulin..

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bill-e-g
Also on my map is Little Devils Postpile. Eeek, got any peeektures of that?

I probably have some on film somewhere. And Wikipedia sure has one:

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szalkowski

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bill-e-g
Interesting. I thought 'Stately Pleasure Dome' was just one of the Polly Dome(s).

No "(s)" - there is only one Polly Dome.

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bill-e-g
My point was I didn't know it had a 'real' name. My guess is that it is just a name
rock climbers have been calling it and it's nothing 'official'.

Probably the origin. However, it has been in common use for a rather long time (I seem to remember it being called that waaay back in 1968 when I first arrived in YNP). The Wilderness Press 15' topo of Tuolumne Meadows lists three 'named' domes going NNE from Tenaya before reaching Polly; they are called Stately Pleasure, Harlequin, and Mountaineers. None of these names appear on any USGS maps that I have ever seen.

[Unfortunately, they don't designate Marmot Dome on that map. You know where it is if you are a member of "The Friends Of Marmots Society."]

Maybe they were all originally lumped together as Poli-dome.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

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Bob Weaver
It's right in front of Polly.

It's the cracker?

Bob,

The pictures are very nice. I appreciate photos of sweeping landscape, as I have zero ability to photograph this subject (I have done so much macro work that I end up doing a close-up of the bug on the visor of half dome)

Is this the trip that you took your mother on? How did she enjoy it (did she like seeing the bear cubs?)

I had a family member in a wheel chair and I used to take him everywhere -- including the dirt paths at Daffodil Hill! I also used to take him on all of my 10k running races...yup...came in last place everytime, but there were always others who gave up the race to help me push the wheel chair up the hills!





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/2009 09:45PM by Bee.

Yes, this was the trip I took my Mother on. I know she enjoyed some parts of it very much... eating a picnic dinner at that pullout before the Mariposa Grove while the deer sniffed and licked at the barbecues. The Happy Isles trail was very rewarding for both of us. Not the nature center but the Happy Isles themselves. That is currently my favorite spot in the park. We had a chance encounter with our neighbors from San Diego - they live 5 houses down from us, but there they were on the same trail with us. Completely random and unexpected. It was near the Happy Isles nature center that we saw the young bears. I wish I could have seen them more, but other people yelled and made them run away. She was impressed by the bigger waterfalls and enjoyed the sights in the valley. In the afternoons she got tired and didn't enjoy it as much. We didn't stay too long at Glacier Point because it was cold and windy. I just took pictures, took one peek over the wall and got the willies, recovered from that and we went back to the car. She enjoyed the Tioga Road drive and the traffic was so sparse that it felt like we were the only ones on the road. Only at the stops such as Olmstead Point did we encounter other visitors. She did tire out from the endless curving mountain roads and so did I. They have done about the best that they can do as far as wheelchair accessibility. It's very easy to get on the shuttles with a wheelchair. I don't know what more they could do, really, for wheelchair-bound visitors. The have made it easy to get to the most famous spots. I would rate them highly on their accessibiity efforts. I don't feel like she "missed out" on anything really great to see because of the fact she is in a wheelchair.

Windy Mountain Roads...I finally got to see all of the Tioga Road attractions this last trip (including the chinese fire drill in the middle of the road) but, unfortunately, even though billy was kicking the back of my seat every two mintues, I could not stay awake for the return trip (it was the hamburgers at the TM Grill that did me in!!)

What is the Chinese fire drill in the middle of the road?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Chinese Fire Drill is a pejorative expression usually referring to a prank, or perhaps an expression of high spirits, that was popular in the United States during the 1960s.[1][2] It is performed when a car is stopped at a traffic light, at which point all of the car's occupants get out, run around the car, and return to the car (not necessarily their original seat). Chinese fire drills are sometimes executed when one needs to get something from the trunk of a car. Occasionally, if one of the participants is late to get inside the car, the others might drive off without him or her. The phenomenon has been reported as early as the 1940s, so it is possible that the phrase was current at the time, but simply was not recorded. Today, kids often perform this at bus stops on their way to or from school by running out of the bus running around it 3 or 4 times and coming back in to their original seats.

Thus the expression "Chinese Fire Drill" is the act of a group of individuals accomplishing nothing. The term is also used as a figure of speech to mean any large, ineffective, and chaotic exercise.

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Old Dude

Funny, I didn't find that listed in the Yosemite guidebook or newspaper given out at the entrance station. However, this happened to us once in Santa Barbara, as we were stopped at a traffic light. A bunch of college-age kids started running circles around our car for a minute - all of them were total strangers and none of us got out of the car to join them.

And just to clarify, it wasn't windy on Tioga Road, I meant winding mountain roads. It gets tiring, endless curve after curve after curve.

Bob,

I meant the same thing by the (improper) use of the word "windy" I meant it as winding, but ended up adding a "Y" ...anyway, you get the idea.

The reference to the chinese fire drill was that Tioga Road looked like this when everyone was stopping their car wherever they were on the road and jumping out to take pictures of the bear. The cars were left half on the road with the doors were open (and the cars probably still running!)

Oh ok... you see a LOT of that activity at Yellowstone.

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Bob Weaver
Oh ok... you see a LOT of that activity at Yellowstone.

The one time I saw a moose there the road was completely blocked in both directions by the cars of people wanting to take pictures. I was not amused.

Cool. Thanks. Gotta go see that (seen the "other" postpile NM)... wanna see this one..

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Bob Weaver
48 photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8601704@N06/sets/72157619609363770/

Bob,

Having made over a dozen roundtrips between L.A. and Phoenix during the last few months, I must dispute the caption on your last photo.

The "Exact Middle of Nowhere" is located along I-10 between Indio and Blight [sic]. It is called Desert Center:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=33.683211,-115.378418&spn=1.071866,1.73584&z=9

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szalkowski
Having made over a dozen roundtrips between L.A. and Phoenix during the last few months

I'm so sorry.

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eeek

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szalkowski
Having made over a dozen roundtrips between L.A. and Phoenix during the last few months

I'm so sorry.

Thank you.

The nicest thing that I can say about Phoenix is that it is not in Nevada.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/2009 05:49AM by szalkowski.

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szalkowski
The nicest thing that I can say about Phoenix is that it is not in Nevada.

But at least Nevada drivers tend to be a little less obnoxious. The worst thing I heard in Phoenix was: "Cessna five-niner-delta, you are number two behind the DC-10. Caution, wake turbulence."

Funny thing is, I know someone who owns a condo next to a golf course in Desert Center, and I stopped there once in February, and I found it peaceful, quiet, relaxing and pleasant - at least for staying overnight one night. I would never live there full time though. It truly is "away from it all" including anything fun or interesting. I could think of far worse places to live such as Gila Bend, Arizona or the incredibly awful Bombay Beach, California on the eastern shore of the polluted Salton Sea.

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Bob Weaver
Funny thing is, I know someone who owns a condo next to a golf course in Desert Center, and I stopped there once in February, and I found it peaceful, quiet, relaxing and pleasant - at least for staying overnight one night. I would never live there full time though. It truly is "away from it all" including anything fun or interesting. I could think of far worse places to live such as Gila Bend, Arizona or the incredibly awful Bombay Beach, California on the eastern shore of the polluted Salton Sea.

You might like to know a bit of the history of the place:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Center,_California

[Of especial interest to some may be the inglorious (ingoatius?) fate of the schoolhouse.]

I neglected to mention that another well-thought-out highlight of the area is the Wiley's Well Road exit (about 15 mi. west of Blight), which features both a CalTrans rest area and a California state prison facility.

[I will refrain from insinuating that this happy convergence was probably the brainchild of someone on loan from Nevada.]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/2009 10:33AM by szalkowski.

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szalkowski
probably the brainchild of someone on loan from Nevada.]

Brain? Nevada? Do those go together?

har har har

Since we believe everything in wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Aulin_High_Sierra_Camp

Just looky the number: six



Regarding the Camp4 : Rock Climbing Lets Women Lord Over Less Adept Males
- goats could care less if the book has pictures or not... all taste the same!
- I'm certain there was some inner anger... but my guess is that thrashing thru the manzanita keeps it at bay

The other poem is far too fine a prose for Mr. Misty Falls (STILL waiting for the picture)
(and that line was written on prose-puse)

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bill-e-g
Just looky the number: six

That's really easy to change. Is there a citation to support that number?

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eeek

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bill-e-g
Just looky the number: six

That's really easy to change. Is there a citation to support that number?

Well when the wifie and I saw mrcondron at the "Kibbie Lake High Sierra Camp"
today I wanted to give him a citation. He failed to promptly produce his wilderness
permit. Is that close enough?

I TOLD you that the book didn't need to have pictures...
(doesn't even necessarily have to be a book)