Category Archives: News & Reviews

I have been posting pictures of our recent trip through California’s
Sierras, including a

week at the Bear’s Lair, plus driving home by way of
Mono Lake,

Panum Crater, Devil’s Postpile, Rainbow Falls, and
Yosemite.

The highlight of the ten day trip for me (not counting seeing my mother be the oldest
person by 50 years to win the Disco Bingo costume award at the Bear’s Lair) was the
beautiful and various wild flowers we saw in bloom everywhere we went.
I checked my photos against the flower pictures in Sierra Nevada
Wildflowers – A Field Guide to Common Wildflowers and Shrubs of the Sierra
Nevada, including Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks by Karen
Wiese (Falcon, 2000). Some of the identifications may not be correct
but I love the common flower names: paintbrush, mule ears,
prickly poppy, rabbitbrush, wandering daisy, and
blazing star.

White Yarrow, Dodge Ridge

Wandering Daisy, Dodge Ridge

Cinquefoil, Dodge Ridge

Soft Arnica, Dodge Ridge

Mallow, Dodge Ridge

Draperia, Dodge Ridge

Gooseberries, Dodge Ridge

Thistle, Pinecrest

Lupine, Sonora Pass

Paintbrush, Sonora Pass

Cushion Stenotus, Sonora Pass

Pennyroyal, Sonora Pass

Mule Ears, Sonora Pass

Prickly Poppy, near Sonora Pass

Rabbitbrush, Devil’s Postpile

Fireweed, Devil’s Postpile

Blazing Star, Mono Lake

Manzanita, Yosemite

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

On our way home from our annual camping

week at the Bear’s Lair, we drove
by way of Yosemite.
I visited Yosemite many times as a kid, including a week each High School winter
with the Yosemite Institute. So, the valley
is a very familiar place.

Our family has driven through Yosemite valley in recent summers but this
was our first long visit. From
Mammoth Mountain,
we drove on Highway 120, crossing into Yosemite National Park over Tioga Pass
on the East side. We stayed two nights at the Yosemite View Lodge in El
Portal (just outside the park’s West gate on Highway 140).

Yosemite was hot and there was very little water in any of the falls.
Yosemite Falls was entirely dry. We left my mother at the base of the Mist Trail
(she painted a watercolor of the Merced River), then hiked to the bridge to
find Vernal Falls reduced to a few ribbons.

We ate dinner at the Yosemite Lodge Mountain Room, lunched at the elegant
and formal Ahwahnee Lodge, and had a very good visit.

Sierras Maps

Driving to Yosemite National Park

Watch for Rocks, Iconic Yosemite Sign

Paul, Eleanor, Jessica, Matt

Katy and John at Olmsted Point

Half Dome

Eleanor Painting

John Downstream from Vernal Falls

Jessica and Paul

Swimmer Jumping, Merced River

Dry Yosemite Falls

The Mountain Room, Yosemite Lodge

Ahwahnee Great Room

Ahwahnee Fireplace

Ahwahnee Conduct Sign

El Capitan

Jessica and Matt check the map

Rest Break, Yosemite Lodge

Speeding Kills Bears

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson, Paul Dickinson Goodman, John Plocher

On our way home from our annual camping

week at the Bear’s Lair, we drove home
by way of Mono Lake,
Mammoth Mountain,

Devil’s Postpile and Rainbow Falls,
and Yosemite.

We drove past Mono Lake on our way to Mammoth and then stopped back
at the lake on our way to Yosemite. Besides its lovely setting, Mono Lake
is remarkable for its Tufa Towers and its Brine Flies. Tufa Towers
form underwater from freshwater calcium-bearing springs entering the salty
lakewater. The decline of Mono’s water level has left these bright white
towers standing like
stalagmites in a roofless cave. Black brine flies were thick on the lake
border and in the water when we visited. The flies avoid other animals and
people. It is interesting to watch the flies scatter under the path of a
low-flying seagull. The color contrast of the black flies on the white
tufa against the bluegreen lake is strange, a little icky but interesting.

Tufa Towers, Mono Lake

Exploring Mono Lake

Black Brine Flies, Mono Lake

Mono Lake Seagulls

Brine Flies on Tufa

Mono Lake grasses and wildflowers

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

After our vacation

week at the Bear’s Lair, we drove home
by way of Mono Lake,
Mammoth Mountain,

Devil’s Postpile and Rainbow Falls,
and Yosemite.

To get there, we drove on highway 108 from
Pinecrest
over Sonora pass (elevation 9625 feet) through the

Emigrant Wilderness and past the
Marines’ Mountain Warfare Training
Center. We ate lunch at the historic
Bridgeport Inn (formerly
the Leavitt House where
Mark Twain stayed).

After lunch, we drove past a big fire at Lee Vining, then walked around the
Panum Crater, near
Mono Lake. Panum is an ancient volcanic cone with great splashes of black and
gray obsidian and pumice rising in spires in the center. Unfortunately, some
aggressive wasps have built their nests in the spires. When my nephew
Daniel was stung, we did not try to go further in to see more of the cone.

After Mono Lake, we drove to the town of Mammoth Lake and our hotel. The next
day, we hiked to Devil’s Postpile and Rainbow Falls. We took the park bus from
the
Mammoth Mountain ski resort to the Devil’s Postpile trail head because
of our truck’s suspension problems. Sadly, John could not come with us because he
was working with the truck repair shop. The Postpile is an amazing cliff of
dark grey basalt columns that do indeed look like many-sided posts.

Throughout this area are historical markers by the road. Most of these
informative signs are cast in metal and set in rock mounds to protect them
from weather and traffic. Here is the text on one at Sonora Pass:

SONORA MONO TOLL ROAD / Oldest of the trans-Sierra emigrant trails to
California is spectacular Sonora Pass crossed by Highway 108, second
highest (9,626 Feet) of all highway crossings of the range. The Bartleson-Bidwell
Party, with mules, horses and oxen, made the first crossing on October 18,
1841. This route was not attempted by wagons until 1852. “Grizzly”
Adams took the trail over Sonora Pass in April, 1854, and reported “On all
sides lay old axle trees and wheels…. melancholy evidence of the last
season’s disasters.” The present route first projected in 1862 was finally
completed as a toll road, due to the extreme cost, by Mono, Tuolumne, and
Stanislaus Counties in 1865. It was said to take three weeks for a six-horse
team to make the round trip between Sonora and Bridgeport. / PLAQUE DEDICATED
SEPTEMBER 10, 1983 / BODIE CHAPTER NO. 64 / MATUCA CHAPTER NO. 1849 /
E CLAMPUS VITUS

It was interesting to compare the mammoth statue at the Mammoth Mountain
ski resort to the stuffed elephant we saw at the Washington D.C.
Smithsonian Museum
of Natural History in June.

Ascending to Sonora Pass

Paul reading Sonora Pass marker

Matt and Jessica

Descending from Sonora Pass

Marines Mountain Warfare Center

Lee Vining, Tioga Lodge fire

Mono Lake from Panum Crater

Panum Crater Rocks

Climbing inside Panum Crater

Devil’s Postpile

Paul on top of Devil’s Postpile

Basalt Posts

Rainbow Falls

Successful Hikers, Rainbow Falls

Mammoth Mtn Again

Mammoth Mountain Statue

Stuffed Elephant

On to Yosemite

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

We got back on Tuesday from our annual camping trip. Every year since 1993,
my family has vacationed at the

Lair of the Golden Bear, the family camp managed by the
U.C. Berkeley Alumni Association.
The Lair is in the Sierras near
Pinecrest.
There are 3 camps within the Lair: Gold, Blue, and Oski. Most families renew each year
for the same tent in the same Lair week of the 12 summer sessions.

In over 50 years of Lair camping, each week has developed its own style and
traditions. Our family is always well represented in the 10th week Camp Blue Review –
the Lair’s Wednesday night talent show. This year, Jessica sang “Che Faro Senza
Euridice” (an aria from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s

“Orpheus and Eurydice” opera), Matt did gymnastics: splits and walking on his
hands, and the whole family participated in our own five minute skit called
“Hamlet with Hats”.

After our week at the Lair and despite a
tire blowout and suspension hose failure on our truck, we drove home
by way of Mono Lake,
Mammoth Mountain,

Devil’s Postpile and Rainbow Falls,
and Yosemite. Here
are some Lair photos, more to come!

Camp Blue Sign

Jessica, Matt, Paul

Bear Crossing Sign

Eleanor and Daniel in the Art Grove

John painting Hamlet crowns

Hamlet props

Jessica sings

Matt does the splits

Hamlet with Hats

Hamlet with Hats

Aspen Meadow Appaloosa

Paul

Jessica

Matt

Aspen Meadow

Paul’s Lair Birthday

Paul driving his Grandma

Packed to go

Last Picture with Oski

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

My teenage kids have been helping my mother photograph some of her
art collection this summer. One of the items which got mixed in with the
Mexican folk art is a
music box I bought her years ago in San Francisco’s
Chinatown. (I wrote on

December 03, 2007 about our annual trips to Chinatown.) This small
music box is typical of the odd and charming mixed-culture goods available
there.

The music box is black with a gold rim, it plays a
can-can tune and
features a skeleton wearing a red hat, gloves, and shoes, juggling two
striped balls. The cut paper skeleton dances energetically in his black
shadowbox when the music plays. The skeleton is like a Mexican
Day of the Dead
figure set in the European context of a music box.

Image Copyright 2008 by Paul Dickinson Goodman