August 8, 2014: Sierra Foothills with College Friend Ben:
Columbia, Moaning Caverns, & Indian Grinding Rock State Park, Coulterville, 

images copyright Casondra Sobieralski

Ben and I covered a lot of ground in one day!  Our intention was to spend two days hiking in Yosemite, where Ben lived for a whole summer when we were undergrads.  Our first objective was to find Hidden Falls. But there were 25 wild fires burning, it was 102-degrees, and we ascertained that due to the severity of the drought, Hidden Falls was going to be invisible, not just hidden.  (Jewel Lake was a mere puddle!)

So after one day in Yosemite, we decided to amend the plan and explore the southern end of the chain of Gold Rush Towns along the spine of 49.  (I always do the northern towns, like Nevada City.)

Ben was impressed by the landscape, which he said looked like Spain.  I was excited to find towns I did not know existed!

Like COLUMBIA, which is a National Historic Park AND a functioning town.  

Had a miner's pizza, visited the visitors' center for the local history, enjoyed the candy shops and watching kids pan for gold. 

This is the original Wells Fargo building! --the very first branch.

Some old mining technology...

I liked this shot for the gold ring around the woman's hand resting as she learns how prospectors panned for gold.

Click for large version to see the groovy Old Time graphics.

Moaning Caverns

Oops, I took Ben to the "wrong" cave!  Or rather, I did not take him to the cave I intended.  I got the names mixed up.  I was looking for Black Diamond Mine near Jackson, which is a National Natural Historic Monument.  It's like being inside a giant geode, truly something to behold.  But I thought it was called Moaning Caverns, so people steered us to, well, where I was [erroneously] asking to go!  

This cave is also near Jackson, but it is a very different kind of cave.  It is a 400 foot vertical shaft into the ground. We had to take a tight spiral staircase down down down... People found it because it "moaned" when gasses escaped.  Legend said it was the ghosts of people who had fallen into the shaft.  

The thrilling thing about shooting in this cave was, I found out how capable my Canon EOS 70D is in loooooow light.  Compositionally, these photos are nothing prize winning; we were being hurried through on a tour.  But I shot these pics at an ISO of 2500!!!!!!  I thought they would look like grainy crap.  But look!  I am so impressed.

Indian Grinding Rock State Park

This is a Sierra Miwok site near Jackson.  The women ground acorns (a dietary staple) on these rocks for centuries.  Local lore says that you can still hear their voices laughing and gossiping, left over energies from a time when the women were creating social bonds as they engaged in their work.   I actually got to try acorn mush at a festival in October.  It was quite tasty!  --like a nutty Farina cereal.

Note how these Sierra Miwok houses are different from the Coastal Miwok houses on a blog post from an August festival in Point Reyes.  The Sierra houses are more squat and round, the Coastal houses are taller and narrow. 

Coulterville

Ben made lots of friends in this tiny town.  --stopped at a coffee shop, spent a good hour in a store learning history from a local woman.  Ben bought a John Muir-style hat from her.