Little Studies in the Yosemite Valley. 91 



FIG. 2. 



One might time his ascent for an hour when the route 

 lies wholly in shadow ; the dust will then obligingly pour 

 over the edge of the trail, perhaps upon others following 

 on a lower zigzag, but that, of course, is their lookout. 

 Conversely one might time the descent for an hour when 

 the trail is wholly in the sun. The dust will then float 

 up behind one, leaving ever a clear path ahead. The 

 writer, in fact, did deliberately put this in practice on 

 more than one occasion during his sojourn in the valley, 

 whenever the choice of hour mattered little otherwise — 

 always with the desired result. Thus, he would be care- 

 ful to make the ascent of the short trail to Glacier Point 

 before its zigzags emerged from the morning shadows, 

 and to descend again before the sun had set on them. 

 But the casual tourist is seldom favored in this way. His 

 sight-seeing trips are laid out for him with little regard 

 for any rules like these, and as a consequence, he eats 

 Yosemite dust a good share of the time. 



But, it may be objected, the valley sides lie ever part in 

 sun, part in shadow. The very lay and configuration of 

 the valley are such that at no hour of the day is either of 

 its slopes entirely sunlit; what with the many cliffs and 

 headlands and recesses there is always a shadow here or 



