Then & Now | Valentine’s Day at Yosemite National Park

A look back at our first Valentine’s Day in 2008, spent in one of my most favorite places in the world: Yosemite National Park. We had been dating for almost a year by that time and were still living on opposite coasts. For my birthday a couple of months prior, Sly gave me my first digital SLR (I still have and use that thing as a backup camera) and I was anxious to go somewhere outdoorsy to experiment. What better place than Yosemite? PS: Note all the tell-tale signs of someone with a new camera: macro photos of water droplets, Ansel Adams-inspired black and whites, reflections, long exposures without a tripod, fast exposures to capture motion, etc. All that’s missing are some close-ups of wine glasses. Oh  wait, there’s actually a few close-ups of a mug of hot chocolate. Check!

Most importantly, check out the ORIGINAL S.I.T.H (sun-in-the-hair) photo! Since then we have taken a million or more SITH pics and we have no plans of stopping!

Included are some excerpts from my original blog post.

Sly and I planned our Vday together–weekend in Yosemite with dinner on Vday at the Ahwahnee Lodge. It wasn’t anything we hadn’t done before, but getting away from the city, and having a nice quiet dinner in a low-key atmosphere, really was the perfect way for us to spend the day together. Sly bought me a vintage amethyst heart necklace (the story was that it once belonged to a Vegas showgirl who married a big band leader and collected vintage jewelry pieces like this) that was unexpected and beautiful. We were lounging around in the lodge. I was lying down, watching tv. And next thing I know, there was a necklace dangling over my head. Apparently, Sly kept the necklace in his pocket the entire time, afraid I would somehow discover it on my own while packing things for our trip. I love it, but mainly I love it because it came from Sly.

My gift to him, on the other hand, was pretty stupid. I gave him a book of poems and a little pez dispenser.

I have always wanted to stay at the beautiful and historic Ahwahnee Lodge but even during the winter months the room rates were pretty steep. If I remember correctly I think they may have also been fully booked. We ended up spending a couple of nights at Yosemite Lodge and then another couple of nights in one of the hard-sided Camp Curry cabins. Valentine’s Day dinner at the Ahwahnee Lodge wasn’t the best meal we’ve ever eaten together (food at Yosemite was across the board pretty average) but the atmosphere more than made up for it.

Sly didn’t know this at the time but the necklace he gave me resembled my favorite heart-shaped (fake) diamond necklace my mom and dad gave me as a kid. I don’t wear the necklace often (too scared something will happen to it), but I pull it out every year to wear on Valentine’s Day.

PS – Many of the Yosemite landmark names are currently being fought over in a greedy court battle. I don’t care what the names get changed to, I will always refer to Camp Curry as Camp Curry and Ahwahnee as Ahwahnee. Nice try though.

I have hiked to the top of Yosemite Falls at least twice, and once with Sly. Not on this trip though.

We spent a good part of the next morning playing in the snow and exploring the snow-covered park. The best part about visiting Yosemite during the winter was there were hardly any tourists, and what tourists were there seemed holed up near a fireplace. We hardly ever saw anyone on any trail or even outside of the main Village area. It felt as if we had the park to ourselves.

The weekend in Yosemite was, as always, relaxing, amazing, breathtaking. I’ve been so many times, but each time, I feel as if I discover or see something new. I’ve never seen Yosemite completely covered in snow, but I have to say that I love it probably more than any other season I’ve been. Way fewer people allows the beauty of the natural surroundings to really shine.

We stayed in Curry Village again–in the heated hard-sided cabins, and cooked a lot in our room using a hot-pot that I somehow saved from my college days (and brought to SF of all things). We also spent a lot of time hiking through snow and experimenting with the dSLR he bought me for my birthday. I’m still trying to get used to the camera, having used a manual SLR for so long.

one of my most favorite photos of Sly. We call this one his North Face ad / book jacket photo

Our afternoon valley hike took us to Mirror Lake. At one point in time this glacial lake filled up most of Yosemite Valley. Over time, and with the build up of sediment, the lake has slowly disappeared. During the summer months the lake resembled more of a large puddle, In the winter, however, Mirror Lake offered some of the most stunning reflections of Half Dome and North Dome. Those deep blue pools of rippled water seemed to contain an entirely different, yet equally beautiful world. 

Another short hike in the valley took us to the base of Yosemite Falls. We had already hiked to the top of the falls on several occasions during the warmer months so we were quite content hiking around the base, climbing over rocks, and creating our own trails.

For the most part, it really felt as if the park, and the wilderness, belonged to us. While hiking at the base of lower Yosemite falls, I felt so surrounded by nature–the falls, the ice falling from the cliffs (the water freezes before it hits the ground so when you stand near the falls, the mist feels like snow), the view of the treetops–I felt as if I were transported to some other world where it was just me and Sly–and in that world we were just 2 tiny people wandering through all this greatness.

One of the aspects of visiting Yosemite in the winter is the lovely (though short-lived) winter light. About an hour or so before sunset we hiked through the snow to the base of Horsetail Fall to catch a unique natural “firefall” that occurred when the winter sun hit the falls at just the right angle, illuminating the waterfall as if it had caught fire. This phenomenon could only be witnessed in the winter months, February in particular, when the conditions were just so.

On our hike to the falls we ran into one other couple toting all kinds of photography equipment. Naturally Sly befriended the couple which annoyed me at the time because I wanted to enjoy the sunset without having to feel the need to make small talk. Of course they were friendly and I was the weirdo and it was actually a good thing we ran into them because, unlike us, at least they knew where they were going. We didn’t really come prepared to take photos nor did we really know what to expect. For one, the point where we stood to take photos seemed a million miles away from the waterfall. Ultimately we ended up photographing the waterfall with Sly’s point and shoot using digital zoom and no tripod and while the photos came out better than expected, if I were to do it all over again I would bring a tripod and a zoom lens for my SLR. I’m not quite sure we had perfect firefall conditions but not bad for our first attempt.

As mentioned previously, food in Yosemite was average at best so we cooked up a gourmet meal of ramen topped with hot dogs and boiled egg, processed cheese ball with crackers, sardines with mustard, and honey mustard and onion pretzels. Dinner of champions! I don’t think cooking was allowed in the cabins (food in general was not allowed to be kept inside the canvas cabins because of the bears), even the hard-sided ones, but we rationalized that boiling water using an electric kettle was pretty low risk in terms of fire hazard and the food we ate was no worse than drinking Coke/eating snacks in a motel room. Still, probably the wrong thing to do.

The next day we packed a backpack with a thermos of hot water, plastic mugs, and packets of hot cocoa and spent the entire afternoon wandering along the snow-topped banks of the Merced River taking photos and stopping for hot cocoa breaks.

We caught another amazing sunset that evening, this time from Cook’s Meadow facing Half Dome

As always, leaving sucked, even if it was sweetened by the colossal ice cream that Sly bought for me on the way home–the same ice cream that made me feel queasy for 90 miles, but was so worth it. I wish I could find a good balance in my life between what I have in SF and what I experienced, and always experience, in Yosemite.

But back to Vday–it was a perfect vday. Nothing too fancy, nothing too over-the-top, just spending time with someone I care about in a place I absolutely love.

Why yes, we did buy matching t shirts before leaving Yosemite. It was Valentine’s Day after all. If there was ever a day to be corny this was it!  Though I have to wonder if maybe somewhere deep inside we knew that one day we would move to Korea where dressing the same is the norm. 

NOTE: for a good photo resource on photographing Yosemite, check out this book. I bought a copy at the book store during one of my visits to Yosemite. It’s a small, inexpensive, pocket-sized book that I have found useful.

---

Valentine’s Day in Korea is usually celebrated with girls giving chocolates to boys, or if you’re an expat, it’s celebrated by dinner at an Italian restaurant. We don’t really like going out to eat on Valentine’s Day simply because we don’t like dealing with reservations or crowded (Italian?) restaurants. But then I’m more of a hot-dog-and-ramen kind of girl over candy and chocolates.

Yesterday we made our traditional tuna patty melts on homemade rye bread to commemorate our engagement six years ago on the day before Vday. Today Sly is baking all kinds of homemade goodies. We plan on spending a low-key day together binge-watching The Killing on Netflix, stuffing our faces with carbs and heading to bed early because tomorrow we’re going snowboarding! Time to bust out that GoPro and take some sick film footage! Do cool people still use the term “sick?” I’m looking forward to spending another Valentine’s Day weekend outdoors, in the snow, surrounded by mountains. Just like old times.

Happy Valentine’s Day if you’re the type who celebrates it or Happy made up Hallmark holiday if you’re not!

PAST VALENTINE’S DAYS

Valentine’s Day in Seoul
Valentine’s Day 2014, Part 1 and Part 2
Valentine’s Day 2013, Part 1 and Part 2