Wherein Moominmama observes granite, trees and trails in Yosemite and compares them to the Granite State...

The granite in Yosemite National Park appears to have been scoured clean. Trees may cluster in the valleys and in isolated spots on the top, but there are vast expanses of grey rock overlooking the valleys. Rough to the touch, it seems smooth from a distance, with no space to capture dirt for a wind-blown seed.

These features share common factors with the granite in New Hampshire - a combination of underground forces that first formed the granite from magma then shoved it up toward the light of day. Wind and water tore off the other layers of dirt and stone until the granite remained. Then glaciers, like giant scouring pads, ground the sides even steeper and left a detritus of broken rock below.

In New Hampshire's White Mountains, it appears the rock broke off in large chunks and left jagged cliffs and plenty of room for soil to collect, allowing plants and trees to grow. The granite in Yosemite appears sheered off and pounded into small stones and powder below. Moominmama saw few of the big boulders so common along NH's hiking trails.

Yosemite, like the rest of the California, is suffering from drought, and I was lucky to see some of the signature waterfalls like this one at Vernal Falls. I also got some great views of Yosemite Falls while hiking up to Glacier Point on the opposite side of the valley.

These falls can dry up by mid-summer, I'm told. The auto road up to Glacier Point was closed, so the only way to get to the iconic viewpoint was to walk uphill for 3,200 feet and 4.6 miles (and back downhill the same distance, I might add!)

This was Moominmama's most ambitious hike yet! I took off early in the morning before it got too hot and trudged my way up to the spectacular views of Half Dome and the canyon towards Tenaya Lake.

Recovering from my efforts the next day, I drove to Tenaya Lake to escape the heat and spent an afternoon reading and dipping my toes in the icy water from a spot in the shade.

What these photos don't show is the 90+-degree temperatures near Yosemite and the yellow grass, as if it were already August and the grass gone dormant.

Unlike hikes in New Hampshire where trees and underbrush are so plentiful, you can rarely get a view below tree line, here the views are easy to find.

Within the park, there's an estimated 2.4 million dead trees across 131,000 acres. According to the park service, the lack of water has doubled tree mortality across the western U.S. between 1955 and 2007. A variety of bark beetles native to the region have been able to dine on the struggling trees. If that's not enough, the bugs leave fungal spores that lead to disease as well. The warming climate also risks new bugs, like borer beetles, and new diseases. 

And while fire is natural and can be a rejuvenating force, the recent fires have been so hot that trees are unable to survive. Everywhere I turned, there were signs of fire and disease. Moominmama saw countless hillsides of dead trees, pale stalks that from a distance looked like wisps of hair a bald man would attempt to comb over his pate. 

This logging operation was on the route to a grove of Sequoias: the Merced Grove. Were these trees diseased? Part of a harvest to reduce the danger to the Sequoias? I couldn't tell, but it's a bit of shock to walk into a National Park, find a torn-up logging road, and see the trees cut and stacked!

The giant Sequoias are very much at risk. Their roots are surprisingly shallow for such a big tree, in fact, the park service put large plastic mats down where people walked near the trees. I loved the deeply grooved bark. I think I could have fit my head in one of those grooves.

This group of Sequoias has a small fence around it and seemed the most intact. Two other trees that butted up against the road had been the victim of acts of vandalism, including the soot of a fire.

Fortunately, Moominmama is now in the Redwoods of coastal California, where the problem isn't drought so much as excess rain that is washing out trails and requiring bridge repairs up along the coast.

If the Giant Sequoias are endangered, these coastal redwoods have plenty of water and a reputation for resilience. If they can be protected in other ways, I feel more confident that I'll be able to come back and see them another day.

The damp here is a shock to the system after so much dryness. The moss and ferns and wet decay create a whole new set of smells. Moominmama is adjusting to rain and highs in the 50s instead of 90s. But there's good seafood to be had and views of the Pacific Ocean!