Yosemite in the Before Times
A final visit to Yosemite National Park prior to its closure due to the global pandemic.
By Max Nichols, with additional imagery by Josh Currie
It is March 18th, 2020, a week after the World Health Organization’s declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic and two days prior what was a-nearly 3 month long closure of Federal lands including Yosemite National Park.
I grew up just “down the hill” from Yosemite, and had visited it more times than I could count but rarely in mid-winter and never in the middle of a pandemic.
And now the park was empty.
An eerie silence hung over the Valley. Its towering granite walls were accompanied only by the sounds of ravens, running water, and the crunch of snow beneath my boots.
There were no cars, trucks, people or tour buses. The oft-packed parking-lot at Tunnel View was empty. There was only myself and a handful of other perplexed explorers.
At Tunnel View I smiled at three strangers, sharing a sense of awe at the near-solitude, and then began a long drive through the Valley in search of the elusive Yosemite coyote.
By the end of the day we had seen not one but three coyotes in different corners of the park sporting thick winter coats as they hunted and foraged with an air of confidence and authority that they were now the dominant presence in the Valley.
Little did I know that this trip would be the last I would take to Yosemite until the Park reopens. The abundance of beauty I encountered will be the memories I treasure through these months of isolation.
