Nonimmigrant: Clouding over

We weaved our way East, away from the safe haven of Berkeley and into the wilds of central California. The clouds built as we drove until misty rain became constant and then heavy. Our laden silver car climbed up roads carved into the granite landscape until (after four hours and one stop at In'n'Out burger) we reached the park.

Yosemite is a deep scoop taken out of the surrounding rock, with sheer mountain faces rising around its long flat valley. There's much more to it than that, about 1,150 square miles more, but this is where most of the visitors stay. Some of the roads through the higher passes are still closed due to snow, but the main precipitation we got to enjoy on Friday night was rain.

Wow. If someone on the camping pitch next to ours had started building a boat and ushering animals in two-by-two I'd have been there, pushing the aardvarks out of the way to get on first. But undetterred we found our spot next to the river (flood hazard?) and started to raise canvas covers against the deluge. Everything went smoothly, even carrying Dana and Amir's tent to their car so that their air mattress could be inflated easily (alright, we had one too), and soon camp Davies-Pelleg was established. Rather than sitting in the wet we decided to go and see some local sites.

One of the advantages of the Biblical rainfall was what it did to the waterfalls. There are several large ones that you can see from the valley, and today they were putting on their best show. I'm not sure what happens when a waterfall bursts its banks, but rivers shot out from precipices at around a billion gallons a second (probably) and plummetted hundreds of feet before smashing themselves into vapour on the rocks below. Thousands of mini-falls trickled down rock faces, all conspiring to turn the park into a large swimming pool with us at the bottom.

Tonight we chose Bridal Veil for a visit, a normally sedate fall with a gentle stroll to its viewpoint. Unfortunately the stroll had turned into a wade, and standing at the bottom meant breathing more water than air. Suitably impressed, happy, and soaking wet, we realised that our situation was not quite as comfortable as planned (the revelation came to me when water started soaking up through the bottom of my boots) and made our way to Yosemite lodge, possibly the only few dry square feet for miles around.

There, with a hot cup of cocoa, steaming clothes, and several trips to the hand dryers in the bathrooms (strangely missing from the toilets on our campsite), we held a weather summit. How long can a downfall like this last? What does "20% showers in the morning" mean might happen in the other 80%? Is it comfortable for four people to sleep in a car?

Slightly less moist we returned to our campsite, where even heavier rain made it quickly clear that at least one of our tents was not up to the challenge of repelling so many raindrops. Not wishing to make decisions on empty stomachs we lit a fire and started to cook.

It's amazing what some burgers in damp buns and a bottle of wine will do for the human spirit, and shortly after darkness fell Dana, Hannah, Amir, and I found ourselves huddled together in one tent, lying on a selection of deflated air mattresses, sleeper mats, blankets...basically anything that might put a barrier between us and the rising water table. There we lay, singing songs to keep spirits high (well, one of us did), before the lights went off and we dreamt of dry warmth while the thunderous patter of the rain drowned out everything else.