Let's Go Touch Banner and Ritter, but Not the Top, as I'm Not that Crazy!

Bob and I do a great deal of exploring when we are out hiking.  Sometimes this leads to mosquito filled ponds that we vow not to visit again.  Sometimes, we create epic routes.  I have a spreadsheet where I keep track of our hikes and it is color coded -- purple, green, yellow, red, black. We try to do all the purples every year and mix in the greens.  Black is where I put hikes that involve death, and they are never repeated. Recently we did a purple route, with max scenery per mile.  It is lovely, and hard, and has lots of cross-country parts, so we minimize our human interactions.  Nice, very nice.

Bridge's Penstemon

Another penstemon, but I don't know the name of this one.

Western Columbine

Sierra Primrose

This drilled hole provides water to what we think was a spring box.

What we think is an old spring box, a way to keep groceries cool.

Our first sight of Ritter and Banner.

Mt Ritter and Banner Peak

A Week in Yosemite

Yosemite instituted a permit system to keep crowds down during Covid times.  Is it working?  I'm sure it is in some places, in other spots, not so much.  We usually visit Yosemite several times a year, a day here, a day there.  This year, we jammed our Yosemite visits into a week.  So, we are definitely a case of increasing, rather than decreasing visitation. 

We visited all our favorites, and did a bit of exploring as well. We didn't manage to get down into the valley, but did head west far enough to see the sequoias, and even managed the first Washington lilies of the year, and I forgot to inhale their amazing fragrance!  Bother, now I have to wait another year.  We were a couple weeks too late for the dogwoods.  One of these years!