Save Me, San Francisco (part five)

The drive up to Glacier Point was beautiful.

I was shocked when I saw a lighted sign (the kind we hijack to read 'Zombies Ahead') that read, "Road May Be Icy".

Haha, yeah, right.

Just... wow.

Snow?! SNOW? In June?!

I was in disbelief. I thought I was done with snow for a long, long time.

"What keeps the cars from just going off the cliff?"

"Uhhh... common sense?"

Not good enough! It gets foggy, and icy here; I want guard rails.

View from Glacier Point

"What's holding up this visitor platform?"

"Sheer will of the rocks."

"If there's an earth quake?"

"Try not to think about that."

On the left, one of the rocks holding me high up in the air.

It's like a whole other country. One that produces rickety cd racks and odd-tasting meatballs.

Then it was down out of the snow, and on to the sequoias of Mariposa Grove. I'd heard of these giant trees that lived 2,000 years. I'd seen pictures. I'd listened to presentations about President Lincoln taking time out from his busy schedule of fighting wars and freeing slaves to protect these forests. I couldn't wait to see them for myself.

On the walk up, I felt really sleepy. Not tired from hiking, but just a sudden need for a nap. The muddy path looked cool and inviting. I was positive I'd be able to comfortably drape myself over the sharp boulders that jutted out of the ground. I didn't want to stop and rest a bit; I wanted to sleep for three days.

I've had sea sickness, and morning sickness, and home sickness, and heart sickness, but this was my first experience with altitude sickness. All in all, sea sickness is the worst.

Ron at the base of Grizzly Giant.

Yeah... Really?

Ron next to the biggest charcoal briquette I've ever seen.

I'm going to say right now that I didn't get it. President Lincoln signed a grant to protect this land, in all its "beauty", and they are blasting the tops of WV's mountains left and right?!

The Grizzly Giant has on no clothes. I'm not saying that we should clear it all and build condos. If people want it protected, it should be protected. However, to my untrained eye, it looks like ass.

Back home, there are mountain landscapes of hardwood forests that are being destroyed. Up to 500 mountains, so far, and counting. They dump the tops of the mountains into the valleys, streams, and rivers, polluting the water, to make big rolling fields of rocks and weeds- perfect for building strip malls and Wal-marts.

These mountains were a hundred times more beautiful than any land I saw in Mariposa Grove.

Where is the protection?!