Skinny-Dipping in Yosemite

On one of our family's many road trips across the American Southwest, we found ourselves for a week or so in Yosemite National Park. Yosemite is considered by some to be the paragon of the National Park system; originally established in California as a State Park, it was given back to the Federal government around the time of the formation of the NPS in 1916. Little did they know that 60+ years later, our family would go skinny-dipping in Yosemite.

My parents. Boomers who came of age in the 1960's, they brought a little of the counter-culture into raising their kids. Ok. When I say counter-culture, I don't mean fighting for the revolution. I mean, smoking pot when a friend of dad's from the Vietnam days came over. Or, walking around the house completely naked, to the chagrin, but eventual acceptance of their children. That was about as hippie as they got.

So, on the road. We were tooling around the Park, when my Dad noticed a small waterfall off in the brush on the right side of the road. Many were the time Dad would notice a small animal, a roadside attraction, a whathaveyou and screech to a halt with a resounding "C'mon guys, lets check it out!" This we felt was no exception and were not in any hurry to see the 873th badger or other woodland creature of the trip. My father, of course, adamant about squeezing every cent out of his vacation dollar, instructed us to get out of the car.

A little background here. Our shelter on these trips was a 23-foot travel trailer that my Dad found through one of his work-buddies. After several years of camping in an old Army-green tent that smelled perpetually of wet canvas, the trailer was a nice change. The only downfall was having to, as the oldest son, assist my father in securing the trailer to his truck. Many were the days that he would be behind the wheel, cursing at the top of his lungs for having to pull forward YET AGAIN, then back up at the behest of my poor instructions. I was probably 2 for 20 that summer in lining up the trailer's towbar with the ball on the back of his truck....good times.

Unfortunately, despite the many comforts afforded us with the travel trailer, we never could get the shower to work. Either that or Dad didn't want to waste the water. So we found ourselves at times searching for the facilities at the Park which included, for a nominal fee, the opportunity to shower and clean up.

As we got out of the truck at Dad's urging, he motioned for us all to meet him by the side of the road. There we noticed, about 10 feet from the road, a small waterfall that descended down into the brush and terminated into a tiny stream.

C'mon, lets see where it comes from, Dad said. A groan escaped from my brother and I as we had been deep into a game of name all the counties in Nevada, our home state. Hey, we didn't have GameBoys back then! Dad took off into the brush, which scaled vertically up the side of the embankment. We all followed, Mom and her boys, and wondered what it was Dad was looking for. After 25 feet or so, we noticed another waterfall, this one much larger, that was feeding into a small, round pool, approximately 6-feet in diameter. The pool then fed into the smaller waterfall that we noticed from the road. Created by boulders that had fallen precisely into the right spot, the pool was about 3 feet deep and completely clear, visible all of the way to the bottom. Looking back down the hill, you could see the road, but was obscured by the tangle of trees and brush.

Very cool, I thought.
Awesome, said my brother.
That's pretty, remarked Mom.

Let's take a bath! exclaimed my father.

....what?

It'll be great, he said. We can wash up here and not have to go all of the way back to the compound to take showers. Before we could speak, he descended back down the to the truck and retrieved towels and soap. Instructing my brother and I to disrobe, he then started to undress himself, as if to say, hey I'm doing this too, nothing to worry about!

What about people seeing us? Mom asked.
Oh, we're fine, Cathy. No one can see us from way down there.

My sainted mother, still reluctant to believe that we wouldn't get caught by passing Park Ranger or tourist, slowly started to peel off her clothes, looking doubtfully upon the entire scene. She then, in order to show her sons that their father, while crazy, was trying to have fun and therefore volunteered to be the first in the water. Mom stepped into the water with her leg, then yanked it out with a resounding JESUS CHRIST, DAVE LORY, THAT WATER IS FREEZING!! So much for being the role model for calm and cool for us kids...

Mom then tried again, getting more of her body into the water. She quickly grabbed the soap and began scrubbing furiously in order to be done and into a warm towel. Next was my brother, then me and finally Dad, who I felt should have gone first for concocting this crazy scheme. All the while, the rest of us not washing kept an eye on the road in hopes that we would not be spotted and spend the rest of our vacation explaining to the Park Rangers what EXACTLY we were doing up there.

As I stood there shivering in my towel, glancing furtively at the road below, I heard a car approaching and then slowing. All of a sudden a brown sedan pulls up next to our truck....oh shit.

One of the funny moments in a National Park is when you are driving down the road and all of a sudden see a tangle of cars that have pulled over to the side of the road. Someone, of course, saw something: a deer, an elk, naked people swimming, so of course everyone else has to see it too. The occupants of the brown sedan obviously felt that there was something to behold as we listened breathlessly for the sound of car doors opening, of voices questioning and of felonies witnessed. That we were probably too far up to be seen without their climbing up the hill was of little to no comfort in my 10-year old mind. My father slowly got out the pool and grabbed a towel..

All of a sudden the sedan started up again and sped off. We all breathed a sigh of relief, quickly dressed and made our way back down the hill. I look back at that moment as an "us-against-the-world" example, secure in the fact that we didn't get caught, but shivering nonetheless from cold, fear and possible incarceration for skinny-dipping in Yosemite.