Tuolumne Grove Yosemite National Park

Photos taken in April 2018

Click here for more photos of Tuolumne Grove.

On 4/12/18, we drove to Tuolumne Grove at an elevation of 6,000 feet. It was cold, but not quite freezing & covered with a thin layer of snow. The forest was magnificent. The giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) were huge & amazing. I’d never seen a tree anywhere near that large before. Even coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) aren’t that big. The pines were also much larger than any pine I’d ever seen. It was truly an ancient forest. We walked on a trail that was partly covered with snow. The distance was about 2.5 miles round trip. Tuolumne Grove is one of  3 giant sequoia groves in Yosemite National Park. It contains more than 20 mature giant sequoia trees in the midst of a lush coniferous forest also including pine, fir & dogwood.

Giant sequoia are the most massive trees in the world.  Some have grown to 300 feet with diameters of 56 feet near the base. A range of 160 to 270 feet in height with trunk diameters of 20 to 26 feet is more common. The oldest tree is more than 3,000 years old. They can produce as many as 11,000 cones & disperse more than 300,000 seeds annually.  Giant sequoias grow in the western Sierra Nevada. They are scattered among 68 groves that cover less than 36,000 acres.  They grow at elevations averaging 5,600 feet in the north & 6,300 in the south of their range, mostly on southern slopes in the north & northern slopes in the south.

Giant sequoia were discovered by Europeans in 1833. Logging began in the 1850's & removed a third of the big trees. A preservation effort started in 1864 & increased in 1890 with creation of  Yosemite National Park & Sequoia National Park.  Giant sequoia can be found in Seattle parks & gardens.  They are easy to grow, but require a lot of space.

Yosemite Valley

El Capitan

Half Dome

Mirror Lake

Half Dome

Merced River

Photos taken in April 2018

Click here for more photos of Yosemite Valley.

After spending the night in Modesto, we drove to Yosemite National Park. The foothills of the Sierra Nevada were beautiful. We stopped along a rural road just inside Mariposa County to take photos. We stopped again in the small town of Mariposa to buy groceries, some of which we ate for lunch. The drive along the mountain roads was lovely with many manzanitas & redbuds in bloom.

Yosemite Valley was disappointing. It was smaller than we expected by half: the valley half as wide, the mountains half as tall. It was less impressive than many other mountain valleys we had seen in the Cascades & Rockies. I kept thinking of the very tall & impressive Teton Mountains in Wyoming. It was the first time we had seen the Sierra Nevada, where the mountains are taller than the Cascades. We usually see the Cascades from a much lower elevation. The elevation of Yosemite Valley is 4,000 feet/1,200 meters. It makes sense that the mountains wouldn’t be very much higher than that.

It’s a fairly narrow valley. There are lots of trees that obscure views of the mountains. And there have been many forest fires in Yosemite National Park & the surrounding national forests. The dead & blackened trees were disturbing. The ground was trampled by millions of tourists. Yosemite is the most visited national park in the US. The area around the Majestic Yosemite Hotel (formerly the Ahwahnee Hotel) built in 1927, was like a small city. The ground was covered with cabins, tent cabins, employee apartments, stores, roads & parking lots. It did not feel close to nature.

Our friend was irritated by our attitude. I tried to joke when I pulled out my camera & said, "I'll just have to work with what we’ve got here." Although she laughed, that irritated her even more. She has an annual pass & comes to Yosemite several times a year. It takes 2.5 hours to drive from Modesto. She suggested we walk on the trail to Mirror Lake. That was much better. We walked on an asphalt road that had been closed to cars. The forest plants were less damaged by foot traffic. There were beautiful & impressive views across the lake to mountains including the famous Half Dome.

High Park Toronto

Black oak trees

Grenadier Pond

Ducks

Grenadier Pond

Hillside garden

Black oak savannah

Black oak savannah with birch trees. Photos taken in October 2017

On Monday October 23, I took the subway to High Park at 9 AM. It was beautiful. I walked across a vast lawn filled with large trees spaced at regular intervals, some with bright, falling leaves. Below that was a large pond filled with natural vegetation & ducks. There was a natural forest on the slope above the pond in an area called the West Ravine Nature Trails. People were walking & jogging along the paths. I walked back up to the slope through the Hillside Gardens. The Japanese garden along the creek was nice enough. But overall, I was not impressed with that area.  The giant maple leaf was tacky. There was a more impressive forest of black oak savannah at the top of the hill.  

That was that all I saw. There is much more to High Park. It is a big urban park covering 400 acres (161 hectares) & a perfect respite. It also has a swimming pool, playground, sports fields, cafe & zoo. High Park opened in 1876. The central section is a large plain that is mostly developed. But a significant portion is a rare, natural black oak savannah. Oak savannah is much more common in the US & Mexico. Black oaks (Quercus velutina) grow throughout High Park & many are more than 150 years old. Forested areas are maintained in a natural condition. The lovely Grenadier Pond covers 35-acres (14.2 hectares) on the western edge of the park. On a section of the hillside east of the pond, there are the various Hillside Gardens.  The giant maple leaf-shaped flower bed is visible from the top of the hill.  It looks better from a distance.

Village of Yorkville Park Toronto

Photos taken in October 2017

On Saturday October 21, we got breakfast from McDonald’s very near our hotel. We stayed near Bloor-Yonge subway station, a convenient place for public transportation, with many shops & restaurants. We walked to the Village of Yorkville Park where we ate our food. The park was very interesting, densely landscaped & divided into sections that followed the property lines of the original houses.  They had been replaced with a parking lot, later made into the park. It was a very pleasant place to rest.  Then we proceeded to the nearby Royal Ontario Museum.

The Village of Yorkville Park was completed in 1994.  By now, the plantings are fairly mature.  Groups of trees cast shade & beds are filled with perennials. Many of the plants are native to Canada & represent plant communities such as wetland, alder & birch groves.  There are 11 garden plots, each within the property lines of the row houses demolished in the 1950s. There is also open space & quite a lot of seating.  The busy design coalesces into a green, tranquil, yet diverse space.

The Village of Yorkville Park lies between the row houses of the old Yorkville neighborhood & the modern high-rises surrounding the intersection of Bloor & Yonge, near the subway station.  The park played an important role in revitalizing this area.  It remains a neighborhood landmark, a destination for residents & tourists alike, in the midst of a high-density residential & retail environment.

Distillery District Toronto

Photos taken in October 2017

The Distillery District in Toronto is an amazing restoration & reuse of Victorian industrial buildings.  There are restaurants, and shops housed within heritage buildings of the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery. The district covers 13 acres with 36 Victorian buildings on 10 mostly pedestrian streets.  It is the largest collection of Victorian industrial architecture in North America. The district was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1988. It had been protected under the Ontario Heritage Act since 1976. Two high-rise condominium buildings were built at the edge of the district & cleverly incorporated into Victorian buildings in the late 1990s.  The Distillery District has been used as a location for over 800 film & TV productions. 

After years of decline, the distillery closed in 1990.  In 2001, the site was purchased & developed into the pedestrian-orientated area that now exists, opening in 2003. Buildings are occupied by shops, art galleries, restaurants, coffee houses, a brewery & a performing arts center. The upper floors of a number of buildings are leased to artists as studio spaces & to office tenants with a creative focus. Condominiums, office & retail space has been developed on nearby vacant land.

Riverdale Farm Toronto

Photos taken in October 2017

Riverdale Farm is at the east edge of Cabbagetown in Riverdale Park West. It's certainly worth a visit when you are touring charming Cabbagetown, particularly if you like animals. It contains heritage breeds of farm animals: cows, horses, sheep, goats & poultry.  Riverdale Farm covers 7.5 acres with several buildings & paddocks. There are also flower, vegetable & herb gardens. Riverdale Farm opened in 1978. The City of Toronto purchased the land that became Riverdale Park in 1856. Riverdale Zoo opened in 1894 on the site of Riverdale Farm & closed in 1974. The animals moved to the new Toronto Zoo. From 1974 to 1978, many of the Riverdale Zoo buildings were removed.

The larger barn (the Francey barn) was built in 1858 on a farm about 30 km away. It was donated to the City of Toronto in 1977 & rebuilt at Riverdale Farm. It has 2 levels. There is also a smaller pig & poultry barn. Both barns are located near the Simpson House at the entrance to Riverdale Farm. The Simpson House was built on site & designed to represent the 1850s Francy farmhouse where the Francey barn first existed. The Meeting House was built in 1993 by the duck pond. Activities are offered to the public inside & it includes a lost & found, first aid & restrooms. There are also 2 smaller houses built on the property in the early 20th century & used for various purposes.

Cabbagetown Toronto

There is a small business district along Parliament Street.

Photos taken in October 2017

I thought Cabbagetown was charming, with very well-preserved Victorian houses.  Each small front yard was full of shrubs & trees. Riverdale Farm is at the eastern edge of Cabbagetown in Riverdale Park.  Both are worth visiting in Toronto. Cabbagetown is the largest continuous area of preserved Victorian housing in North America, according to the Cabbagetown Preservation Association.  I lived in San Francisco (in 2 Victorian houses) & the area filled with Victorian architecture is much larger, although perhaps not perfectly continuous.  I was disappointed with the limited extent of Cabbagetown, but it was quite charming.

The extent of Victorian architecture was once much greater.  But the neighborhood deteriorated as housing aged & it became one of Toronto's largest slums.  Much of the original Cabbagetown was razed in the late 1940s & replaced with housing projects.  I walked through an area of public housing along Parliament Street. It wasn’t decrepit or threatening, but dull & bleak, like much of the architecture of that period. The construction of large housing projects ended in the 1970s, as Cabbagetown began to gentrify.  Houses there are quite expensive now.

Cabbagetown was first established in the 1840s, as a suburb of Toronto. Its main thoroughfares were Parliament Street & Winchester Street. At the east end of Winchester Street, Playter’s Bridge linked developing areas east of the Don River to Toronto. Cabbagetown developed along those streets. One of Toronto’s oldest cemeteries (the Necropolis) opened on Winchester Street in 1850.

When Irish immigrants settled in Cabbagetown in the 1840s & 1850s, they often planting vegetables (especially cabbages) on the land around their homes. Cabbagetown was a derisive name used to mock that practice. Cabbagetown began to deteriorate in the early 20th century. Most of  Cabbagetown had been built by 1900. Significant decline came before the Depression.

Graffiti Alley Toronto

Photos taken in October 2017

I walked up Spadina Avenue from the waterfront to Graffiti Alley in the Fashion District. That was quite a sight. There was a huge amount of artistic graffiti, more than I had ever seen in one place. People were in the alley taking photos, or on photo shoots. Artists were making graffiti. It was a lively scene, which continued out onto West Queen Street.

Graffiti art was first legalized in Graffiti Alley.  Legalization was promoted by the Queen Street West Business Improvement Association. Property owners in the area didn't want to be compelled by the city to remove graffiti art. The Business Improvement Association pointed to the cultural significance of Graffiti Alley & its popularity with tourists. All of Rush Lane south of Queen Street West from John Street to Bathurst Street was designated as an area of municipal significance in the Graffiti Management Plan adopted by Toronto City Council in 2011.

Graffiti art & graffiti vandalism are different things in Toronto. Individuals &  businesses must remove graffiti vandalism on their property.  Graffiti art is planned & does not need to be removed. The City of Toronto defines graffiti vandalism as "One or more letters, symbols, figures, etching, scratches, inscriptions, stains, or other markings that disfigure or deface a structure or thing, howsoever made or otherwise affixed on the structure or thing, but, for greater certainty, does not include an art mural." Graffiti art is a "mural for a designated surface and location that has been deliberately implemented for the purpose of beautifying the specific location."