Well Travelled
PHOTOGRAPHS: LEANNE BRACEY
Winter has arrived in Yosemite National Park. We’re near the top of Columbia Rock, around 7,000ft from the valley floor. We climb the steep incline with Scott Gediman at the helm, the park’s long-standing public affairs officer. He takes our minds off the tiring hike by reciting stories from when Barack Obama visited in 2016. The sky has been ‘painted’ with a light winter’s blue; the sun streams through the valley floor, a blanket of pine trees dusted with a sprinkling of fresh snow below. We can see Yosemite Falls, North Dome, Half Dome and El Capitan; just a fraction of the 704,624 acres of designated wilderness in Yosemite. This is nature at its best – nothing is more humbling than standing among such huge granite giants.