The Ahwahnee

Yosemite National Park

October 28, 1941

Dear Mamie:

We are up here in Yosemite National Park on a road march, it is mostly a pleasure trip tho. It is really very nice up here the weather is pretty cool this time of the year but the trip is really fine. The first thing we have done in the army that I have really enjoyed. I guess you know that this is one of the seven wonders of the world and I doubt if I would ever have come up here without this trip as you forget about these places after you been out here so long. We camped up in the mountains last night and early this morning we drove to the Mariposa grove of Redwoods there were really some fine trees there too. They have named most of the large ones or dedicated them to something or someone. About eleven this morning we started on the drive to the valley and all the scenery we saw was too numerous and to beautiful to even attempt to describe.

There is a bunch of us that just took off after dinner today to take in the sights. We went down to Old village and then to Mirror lake and what the names of all the waterfalls are I don’t remember but it was really an afternoon well spent. The deer here are so tame that is is not much trouble at all to get them to eat out of your hands but you still cant catch them as we tried. We are waiting here at this hotel for the fire fall. They build a big fire on glacier point and roll it off. It is really a wonderful sight they claim. We are going to a lecture here by some forest ranger and then go and watch it. We don’t know what the army had planned for us this afternoon and don’t care now as we really had fun.

It was about eight of us that took off, the people at this hotel are really treating us fine and it is really a classy joint as you will see from the folder I will enclose. We will all miss chow to night and have a tough time finding a place to make our beds tonight but its worth it. We are to go on up to Glacier point tomorrow I believe and spend the day up there and start back to camp Thursday morning. We are about 250 miles from camp and it takes all day in an army convoy. I hope everybody is getting along okay back there and wish you could all see the park and the valley I think I wrote you last and this makes me a letter up on you so hoping to hear from you soon I will close now.

Love

Mike