April Showers Bring May Showers

Three of the past four Mondays have had storms. Snow fell on Yosemite Valley's floor again last night, adding frosting to the dogwoods. Considerable frazil ice flows clogged Yosemite Creek, Sentinel Creek and Ribbon Creek, with the latter carrying the slurry deposits all the way to the Merced. If you still haven't seen Steve's terrific frazil footage, find it here. I watched a coyote flounder across the loose ice and balance on a log to cross part of Yosemite Creek, while a female mallard watched calmly from her safe platform on a fresh floe. The spot where the John Muir plaque and Galen Clark bench are located was awash in ice and water this morning. After ten, there was no more new ice coming from the falls, but the lower creek ran mud brown with newly displaced sediment as it left its channels and ran in novel directions through the forest.
The part of Indian Creek that flows under the Yosemite Art and Education Center was backing up over the bike path that runs by there.
Cassin's vireo and Bullock's oriole did some singing this morning, encouraged a bit by the bright sun and the melting snow. Tough weather for some insectivores.

Crane Flat Bear Jam

A cinnamon sow has a nice pair of cubs of two different colors at Crane Flat. The family stopped a lot of traffic while they were grazing on new grass in the wet meadows there. Sad to think that so many bears are hit by cars each year; please drive with the wildlife in mind when you're in the park.
The Valley's dogwoods are maybe 90% emerged at this point; stormy weather today and yesterday further stalls their full brilliance. Cool, cloudy conditions dropped the river level down from 3000 to less than 2000 cfs at Pohono Bridge, below average for this date. But all the meadows are wet, some trails on the Valley floor have challenging creek crossings. There was a small quantity of frazil ice flowing this morning in Yosemite Creek and Ribbon Creek.
Juncos were back to winter flock behavior this morning. Chickadees were still observed in pairs, but no singing was heard. Tanagers and orioles were subdued by the cold. Snow coated the Valley rim this morning, but temperatures should be back up to the mid-70's by the end of the week.

Head for the Hill's Studio

The Wawona Visitor Center is opening today for the summer. It's in the Hill's Studio next to the Wawona Hotel. If you haven't been in there since the new layout and exhibits were unveiled last spring, you really should make a stop on the way through Wawona. We were excited to have a huge Thomas Hill Yosemite painting prominently employed during the last presidential inauguration.
The road from Lee Vining is open to Tioga Pass, and plows have chewed down into Tuolumne Meadows from the east side. On the west, our guys have gotten the plows to Olmsted Point, where a very sensitive avalanche zone is found.
Blue skies with a healthy upcanyon breeze this morning. Western Wood Peewees are wheezing in the Valley. Dogwoods still coming along.

Rippin' Falls

Ribbon Fall is one of the many unheralded glories of Yosemite. Anywhere other than Yosemite Valley, you might build a whole national park around this one feature. It's North America's highest uninterrupted waterfall, at over 1600', but few visitors see it. It's a springtime-only show, supplied by a small watershed which runs dry when the snow's gone. It's at the west end of the Valley, which most people simply drive through. It's opposite Bridalveil Fall, which is closer to the Valley floor and roads, and more visible; Ribbon is way up high on the rim. It's tucked into an alcove so only seen from a relatively narrow area. Steve Bumgardner told me about a short walk to a seldom seen view of Ribbon Fall, where this picture was taken at mid-day today.
Sentinel Creek is bigger than ever, crossing under the road in nine culverts now. The creek from what some call West Sentinel Falls is finally flowing all the way to Southside Drive. Meanwhile the river volume actually dropped a bit, from just a few degrees cooler temperature.
Pileated Woodpeckers are making themselves known with loud trumpeting in various Valley locations.

Mist Trail Open

The Mist Trail to the top of Vernal Fall opens today. Lots of people have been ignoring the closed gate for the past week, but the considerable ice build-up during last week's cold shows why NPS didn't open it until now. More freezing could prompt a closure. The "Ice Cut" from Clark Point to the top of Nevada Fall is still closed.
Road crews have plowed all the way to Glacier Point, but still have a lot of clearing to do, to get two lanes fully open, and all the parking areas cleared of snow. The Tioga crew has pushed up to near the May Lake turn-off, still with 7-9 feet of snow.
May 1 snow surveys show the Tuolumne watershed with 141% and the Merced watershed with 134% of average water content in the snowpack. The Merced River almost hit 3000 cfs at Pohono Bridge last night and warmth for the next few days means our river will be getting to the exciting level.

Indian Creek

The ephemeral Indian Creek has filled with snowmelt and is claiming its numerous channels at the east edge of Yosemite Village. There's the main creek that descends near the clinic and Tecoya housing, but that's not enough for this runoff. Yosemite Village is partly built on the torrent fan outwash from Indian Canyon; look at all the boulders around the clinic, above the post office and the Indian Village. This fan leaks water everywhere now; my favorite part of Indian Creek is where it runs the length of the Village Store parking lot. It just trickles out all along the broad fan in this part of the village, runs underneath the Yosemite Art and Education Center, drains across the road at Ahwahnee Meadow, and works with gravity to wet down the store parking lot on its way to the Merced. We try to civilize nature, but it doesn't work for long.

Dogwood Day Afternoon

Some late cold weather has stalled the dogwood blooms in Yosemite Valley a little this season; all but a few flowers are still green. It's my sense that the emerging bracts are 3-5 days behind a 'normal' spring's phenology. The one early tree that locals first look for is a few hundred yards below the former diversion dam on Highway 140. Its display is mostly white, but the bracts are still not full-sized.
This morning's birdwalk included the triple feature of three of our brightest neotropical migrants: oriole, grosbeak and tanager. The latter two were on the same flowery oak branch at one point. Best surprise: a California ground squirrel a good 30 feet up in a black oak near the Administration building.
Claytonia and Nemophila are adding some color (white) to the ground cover in the Valley this week.
Expected warmth for the next few days should bring the dogwoods into full glory by next weekend, and it'll bring the river up well over 2000 cfs again.