Yosemite: Grand Dandelions and Lichen

 For twenty years, during the same week in June each year, I have been visiting Camp Mather in Yosemite with my family and friends. Located on the road to the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, it is one of the prettiest places you could visit. There are many lovely hikes nearby, and the carving below is taken from one of them. I spotted the huge dandelions in a meadow, and saw the lichen on a granite wall just below the O'Shaughnessy dam spillway at the edge of the reservoir. The dandelions are outsized and muscular, but simultaneously very delicate. The lichen is disc-shaped and flat, with scalloped edges. Lichen, unlike dandelions, can live for over a hundred years, and grows very slowly. It has to be very hardy to survive on a sheer granite face during the severe Sierra Nevada winters and hot summers. These are very different but very lovely shapes, and offer compelling visual textures. A great combination from a sub-alpine paradise, and a really challenging, enjoyable piece to carve.