Took my Bronco to Yosemite a day after it snowed. Incredible!

[montross]

gorgeous photos and thanks for the tips of the chains.

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[FoxFour281]

HWY 49 is right in my backyard. Sonora to Mariposa has a lot of switchbacks to explore the limits of traction. 🫢

 

[tourproto]

Awesome pictures.
The burns may look bad, and do allow erosion, but it's a natural life cycle of a forest. Mature forests don't support a diverse population of plants and wildlife, so the burns are a good thing for the overall health of everyone who uses it, except of course humans who build houses in forests and don't want their home burned down.

The same happened to Yellowstone about 30 years ago when a large part of the park burned. A lot of the tree huggers whined that the park was "ruined" forever, but within 10-15 years, all those burned areas came back more beautiful than ever.

https://wildfiretoday.com/2018/10/30/has-yellowstone-recovered-from-the-1988-wildfires/

Our country's "fire suppression" policy has been nothing short of a total disaster. Fires are a natural occurrence and they need to happen to keep the forest eco-system in balance. Not letting natural fires burn has put a literal powder keg in our forests nationwide.

Yosemite will be just fine and will recover in time. It may take a little longer since it seems like the western US is going to be in a more drought-intensive period moving forward.

 

[FellowM3]

Wow. Gorgeous pics. Looks like an unbelievable time!

 

[NorthShoreBronco]

wow wow wow. Amazing photos! Thank you for sharing.

 

[Crush]

That Area 51 looks great in that place!

 

[mark1031]

There use to be a whole lot more planes parked there at the Mojave airport.

And had you turned east (which I don't recommend) on SR-138 from SR-14, you would have found the graveyard of VW vehicles which VW may have told a little lie about their emissions, lol. Thousands of vehicles...

Your pictures from Yosemite remind me of the time my wife and I were in Yosemite during March in the late 80's. We stayed at what use to be called the Ahwahnee Hotel (I think the name has changed). We woke up in the morning, and saw it was snowing heavily. We decided to forego breakfast at leave the park before we got stuck (which in retrospect, wouldn't have been a bad thing). We must have started heading towards the west gate (Hightway 41) right before the "Road Closed" signs went up (in my old Mitsubishi 4x4 pick-up). The snow was about a foot deep, and all we could see were the snow plow markers at the side of the road (no other tire tracks). My wife was totally freaked-out, but not nearly as freaked at the Park Ranger at the gate as we pulled-up, lol. The powder was about 16 inches at that point. Breakfast was at a little hotel just outside of Oakhurst, where we had some good laughs over our adventure.

Great photos OP!

Damn would have loved to have seen the VW graveyard!!
I could totally understand why she would be freaked out! Some of those drops just past the plow markers are longggggg. gulp! I was pucker-butt myself a few times and could easily see the road.

Glad you liked the pics.

 

[mark1031]

Amazing pictures, are you a photographer. Do you have a IG ? Would love to follow

Im not a pro but a pretty decent amature I would say. I've been taking photos for years and happen to be a gear head so the two go nicely together. It is surprising how difficult it was to get good lighting on the Area 51 paint. Some of those photos I shot a dozen ways and just couldnt get the color to look right. It was mostly in the shade of mountains with the mountains themselves getting tons of light. I cant wait to go back with more then just a few hours to drive through.

Not sure if you saw this thread but this was my 1st adventure in the Bronco a few weeks earlier.

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/epic-roadtrip-oregon-to-los-angeles-along-us-101-us-1.59071/

Oh, no instagram but maybe I should do that. hmmm lol

 

[mark1031]

That Area 51 looks great in that place!

Couldnt agree more!!

 

[mark1031]

The same happened to Yellowstone about 30 years ago when a large part of the park burned. A lot of the tree huggers whined that the park was "ruined" forever, but within 10-15 years, all those burned areas came back more beautiful than ever.

https://wildfiretoday.com/2018/10/30/has-yellowstone-recovered-from-the-1988-wildfires/

Our country's "fire suppression" policy has been nothing short of a total disaster. Fires are a natural occurrence and they need to happen to keep the forest eco-system in balance. Not letting natural fires burn has put a literal powder keg in our forests nationwide.

Yosemite will be just fine and will recover in time. It may take a little longer since it seems like the western US is going to be in a more drought-intensive period moving forward.

I did not post the photos to start a dumb debate about forest fires but I cant lets this go...

You call that photo 15 years later more beautiful then even!?!? See all those really tall trees? Thats what its all supposed to look like. See all those little 10-12 footers, year thats not restored nor is it better. Thankfully no one lives where that fire was, you do realize thousands of homes get burned in these "fires that need to happen"

If a forest burns today you and I will never see it the way it previously was, it takes a generation for trees like that.

Also yes some fires are a natural occurrence but I like that you convieniently left out that 10pct are caused by arson and that 6 of the last massive fires in Cali were caused by powerlines.

Its also very convienient to say our fire suppression policy has been a disaster. Whats your plan? You every fly from Los Angeles to Seattle? Thats an insane amout of forest to attempt to do whatever it is you think isnt being done.

Lastly, it doesnt help that the town I live in had an all time high temp of 98 degrees. Two years ago it beat that by 18 degrees to 116.

To suggest these fires need to happen is pretty ridiculous.

 

[mark1031]

Thanks everyone for the compliments on the photos. When you got a cool ride with insane scenery around it makes it rather easy.

 

[dgorsett]

Awesome pictures.
The burns may look bad, and do allow erosion, but it's a natural life cycle of a forest. Mature forests don't support a diverse population of plants and wildlife, so the burns are a good thing for the overall health of everyone who uses it, except of course humans who build houses in forests and don't want their home burned down.

THIS

 

[mark1031]

THIS

 

[mark1031]

HWY 49 is right in my backyard. Sonora to Mariposa has a lot of switchbacks to explore the limits of traction. 🫢

You have a glorious backyard!

 

[tourproto]

I did not post the photos to start a dumb debate about forest fires but I cant lets this go...

You call that photo 15 years later more beautiful then even!?!? See all those really tall trees? Thats what its all supposed to look like. See all those little 10-12 footers, year thats not restored nor is it better. Thankfully no one lives where that fire was, you do realize thousands of homes get burned in these "fires that need to happen"

If a forest burns today you and I will never see it the way it previously was, it takes a generation for trees like that.

Also yes some fires are a natural occurrence but I like that you convieniently left out that 10pct are caused by arson and that 6 of the last massive fires in Cali were caused by powerlines.

Its also very convienient to say our fire suppression policy has been a disaster. Whats your plan? You every fly from Los Angeles to Seattle? Thats an insane amout of forest to attempt to do whatever it is you think isnt being done.

Lastly, it doesnt help that the town I live in had an all time high temp of 98 degrees. Two years ago it beat that by 18 degrees to 116.

To suggest these fires need to happen is pretty ridiculous.

Wow, interesting response. Not sure why my response triggered you so much.

Wildfires ARE natural. They happen all the time. They burn, and they stop on their own UNLESS humans change those natural cycles. Sorry if you disagree, but that is a historical fact.

I was NOT talking about arson, or power companies not doing what they are supposed to do which is to keep trees away from power lines so that we don't have fires caused by downed powerlines during high winds.

Fire suppression in wilderness areas was a bad course of action, and it has been compounding for decades. Undoing the "damage" that has been done will not be easy. Maybe this might be enlightening: https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-...ies-in-idaho/wildfires-and-forest-management/

This image, from the article explains what happens in a "natural forest" and one that has endured decades for "fire suppression"

You probably think the top left photo is what a forest is supposed to look like, but that is a modern perception and is not correct. The top right photo is what a forest should look like, and will look pretty much the same after a fire.

Yellowstone looks fantastic now, and it did 15 years ago too. We have different definitions/perspectives on what nature should look like.

I doubt anything I have written will change your mind. But Yosemite will look great again, probably sooner than you think, just as Yellowstone did.

And the fires we have (natural and otherwise) across the western US will get worse (due to drought, human-cause warming, and ongoing fire-suppression) until our national policy changes. A natural or arson set fire will have a much worse outcome in a "fire suppressed" forest versus one that is properly/naturally managed.

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