Yosemite Serendipity

It's always a treat when we unexpectedly stumble upon charming towns.   We seldom know, when we plan our route, if the next town with the best campsite will consist of a gas station, a bar, perhaps a pizza joint, and a grimy little store ... or a town like Mariposa, CA, with an historic main street lined with cute (although useless) shops and restaurants.

It is close to one of the entrances of  Yosemite National Park and our home, for the next few days, was in a field at the town's fairgrounds.

We spent just one day in Yosemite, since it was an 80 mile round trip from our campsite.  The famous El Capitan greeted us early on.

Around noon, at a random spot along the road in the park, we noticed a group of people gathered with lawn chairs, blankets, and tripod-mounted cameras -- all pointing to something high up on the canyon wall.  Curiosity forced us to stop.  We found out that during the last two weeks of February, there is a natural occurrence that involves a small and unnoticeable waterfall, the setting sun, and clouds opening up at just the right moment.  At a certain angle and for just a few minutes, the sun reflects off the waterfall and lights it up like falling fire.  And people come from all over with their cameras to capture it.  We had no idea.  It was one of those rare being-at-the-right-place-at-the-right-time strokes of luck and Husband's camera equipment was right there in our car.

In the meantime, we spent the afternoon seeing the sights of this park that had occupied our Bucket List for years.

And some of Husband's pictures:

And another cool lodge .....

Sunset was to be about 5:30 and we got back to the roadside gathering of expectant photographers well over an hour early.   By then the crowd had grown considerably.  And it continued to grow with a very long line of cars parked along the road.  (There are two one-way roads in the park, one going in and one going out.  Apparently there was an equally large crowd on the other road.)

There is no way to know if this event will happen on any particular late-February day.  People just come and hope for the best.  But we got lucky and as the moment approached, the sun peaked out from under a layer of clouds, and the seven-minute show began.  The light hit the bottom of the falls and worked its way upward, hailed with cheers from the large crowd far below.  Husband's pictures:
 

(Serendipity happens.)

Next:  Another delightful town and motorcycling on the coast.