Yosemite National Park is not a place easy to describe with words. Eric and I camped just one night in Yosemite Valley between visiting his friend in San Francisco and a family reunion in Fresno. I was a newbie to Yosemite and had very little idea of what to expect, but as we drove through the park, we zipped by a view of Yosemite falls and the Merced River. I requested we turn around and stop at the viewpoint and when we did, I just melted. It was so pretty I wanted to cry. Fresh from a tour of Google's headquarters, where technology is everything, this world of nature and the wild felt like an entirely different universe.
We drove down into the valley and as we drove, I felt like the weight of the world lifted from me and suddenly my spirit was freed from some invisible cage. I cringed when I thought of our small plot in noisy, crowded Kampala, with our neighbor's radio on at all hours of the day and night. I turned to Eric and told him my thoughts, that I'm just not a creature suited to live in a city and sometimes I don't realize how much I feel trapped in a city until I escape it. Although Big Sur was stunning, it was Yosemite that made me feel like I had truly escaped the hustle of the world.
We hiked around Mirror Lake that afternoon and we made a second hike to the top of Vernal Falls the following morning, then drove to Mariposa Grove to take a quick look at the sequoias. There is little else to say, as words fail to do Yosemite justice. You have to go yourself to experience the feeling that, as a sign read, "only the soul can comprehend what the eye sees."