I had been to Yosemite years ago on a day excursion. In planning an upcoming trip to California in present time I was looking forward to returning. Even more so I was excited for my husband to experience this absolutely incredible National Park for the first time.
All of Yosemite is spectacular. In my mind, though, there is a star of the show, El Capitan, a massive granite cliff face known for its towering height and challenging climbs. Climbers from around the world come to El Cap, perhaps the most well-known being Alex Honnold. In June 2017 he performed the first free solo (no ropes, harnesses or any other safety equipment) ascent of this legendary vertical rock formation. That climb was documented in the film Free Solo. I highly recommend you Google it and find out where it is streaming.
As we drove up to El Capitan, the silence in the car was slowly followed by an expletive coming from the driver’s seat beside me. Mister Rain could not get over its enormous size. We had read that its height is over 3,000 feet but that kind of magnitude is difficult to imagine. I had told him about my previous time here, when I had viewed a tent attached to this giant rock formation about a third of the way up in which climbers had spent the night.
Today, as we got out of the car he had parked across the road from El Capitan, we could hear people talking. The sound was coming from above, drawing our eyes up to the side of the monolith, a futile action on my part but instinctive all the same. Climbers, my husband informed me, located halfway up El Cap. He had me look through the binoculars while he directed me to where I would find the people. I still could not see them but I did locate the spot where they were, an easily identifiable part of the crag due to its unique ledge and striations there.
Mister Rain decided to take a closer look while I gladly waited by the car. No one else was around other than arriving climbers. They all seemed to know each other, I caught snippets of their conversations about mutual friends and previous encounters at other climbing destinations. It was interesting to hear after learning a little about this community in the Free Solo documentary. Have I mentioned you should run, not climb, to your nearest device to find out where you can watch it? Cause you should.
It was a beautiful day. I continued to look at different sections of El Capitan with the binoculars. I could not look away nor did I want to. You may be thinking, Why? It just stands there as it has for 100 million years. It doesn’t do anything. While that is true, it most definitely does something to you.
I saw movement, it was my husband returning from his more personal inspection of El Cap. As he approached me I could make out the motion of his head moving back and forth. He was having a moment. “I don’t even know what to say,” he stated, as he arrived in front of me.
And doesn’t that just say it all.
Sister Rain Note:
If you would like to read about Piper’s climbing of El Dad, click here.
For other Yosemite National Park stories, click on the titles below.
What Do Bears Eat?
Sunrise In Yosemite
Yosemite View Lodge
Yosemite Tunnel Vision
Galen Clark’s Sequoias
Yosemite Valley Chapel
In The Spring Yosemite Falls
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