Part 3 - Back in Time in Yosemite - The Owl

The Yosemite Conference is exactly what I expected and covered a full range of environmental issues including discussion of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) updates on the cap and trade, safer consumer products and hydraulic fracturing. California is a wonderful state for environmental scientists. In the afternoon a break was provided to allow time for contemplation and communion with the environment we all work so passionately to protect. 

The Meadow

I found my solitude and contemplation on a hike on the Meadow Loop. It was an easy three-mile walk. On this sunny fall day I saw only 3 people. Almost at the end of my walk I was treated with a view of a Great Horned Owl how sat peacefully up in a pine tree. Upon seeing me he looked at me intensely as if to say stay where you are and we will both be okay. We stared at one another for quite a while and then he flew away. 

What a gift!!

Great Horned Owl

As I walked back to the hotel thoughts of Great Horned Owls and the environment rolling around in my head, I saw the hotel grounds in a new light. The hotel though simple and rustic fits into the wilderness and doesn't try to dominate it.  It’s amenities are wholesome, comfortable and simple things like good people, good music, good food, fire in the fireplace, games, chairs for sitting and relaxing and beauty everywhere. When I got back to the hotel from my hike, I heard of another woman hiking alone near the hotel. She was a Park Service employee who worked at the hotel. When she did not return that evening, she was declared missing and a search ensued. A few days later she was found at the bottom of a ravine injured and suffering from exposure. It turns out that she fell 35 feet off a cliff only a short distance down the trail and fractured several vertebrae and could not move. One never knows what danger might be encountered in the mountains.  

My day ended with the best pot roast I have ever eaten and a glass of organic wine. Sharon, of the wait staff, told me that some of the families have been coming to Wawona Hotel for a 100 years and one man loved the pot roast so much he ordered it every day during his visits. Then she said, "Let me go get you the chef's business card, you can email him and he will send you the pot roast recipe".

Wawona Hotel Fountain

After dinner, sitting on the porch in front of my room I hear the sounds of the bubbling fountain out front, laughter down the hall, and the birds. I think of Ken Burns and his PBS documentary. National Parks really are America's Best Idea.  Honestly, though, I would have preferred to have my own bathroom.