If you only had one day in Yosemite National Park, what would you do, what would you want to see? While many head to the park's namesake valley for a one-day visit, there's so much more to see in this sprawling Sierra wonderland.
To prove that point, 30 filmmakers gathered in Yosemite on June 26, 2012, and spread out across the park's landscape to capture its essence, as they saw it.
From rangers on horseback patrol and hang gliders getting ready to lift off to life in Housekeeping Camp, hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail, and even a rescue near Half Dome, it's all contained in the following video produced by Yosemite's resident videographer, Steven Bumgardner.
Enjoy!
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Another absolutely AWESOME production by Steve!
But one thing we all really need to remember about this is that even though this film focused on Yosemite, it could have been focused on ANY of our parks, monuments, or historic places. In any park we might find artists or photographers; families standing and staring in shared awe; people paddling or flying or hiking; children meeting the outdoors and rangers with their horses -- or without the horse; a boy fortunate enough to share a climb and its rewards with his dad; people enjoying and people in need of help; a sense of adventure and accomplishement that comes from hiking a very long trail; night skies that can't be seen in too many places now; quiet of an evening camp; gentle breezes or howling wind through trees and grass and who can list how many more?
This short movie by its very simplicity and beauty seems to bring out the entire reason behind parks. The values we can share; the scenes we can see; the experiences we can have. Those things may be impossible to enumerate -- and impossible to ascribe with any kind of monetary value. And perhaps because we can't inventory those things and place price tags on them . . . perhaps that is exactly why we need them and why they are so essential in this world today.
I wonder if our world wouldn't be a much better place if more of its citizens could have these kinds of experiences? Is wildness, as John Muir said, really our salvation?
And finally, despite all the challenges we face, isn't all the expense and hard work of keeping places like these alive and available and preserved worth it? Aren't our parks truly churches in which every visitor may find their spirits soaring?
I agree with Lee Dalton totally. Steve Bumgardner and his team in Yosemite are setting a very high standard that will be very difficult for other parks to achieve. These video "Yosemite Nature Notes" are of true professional quality, every one of them. How can Steve's talents be used to help other parks with their own video nature notes?
I watched this particular "nature note" several times. Two things about this "one day in the park in 2012" stood out as strikingly different from my era as a Yosemite park ranger-naturalist (1969-1971): (1) hang gliding as an accepted recreational use, and (2) the wearing of all that defensive gear by a uniformed ranger on horseback.