This past week I spent several days in Fresno, California. And when I go to Fresno, I also tend to go up to the mountains. This usually includes visits to the national parks, including Yosemite National Park, and Kings Canyon / Sequoia National Parks. This trip was not different.
When I go to the parks, I usually grab a spot and just sit for an hour or two, taking in the fresh and magnificent scenery — be it a big valley and waterfalls (Yosemite) or large magestic Sequoia trees (Kings Canton / Sequoia).
I spent Friday afternoon at Yosemite, where I parked just above the tunnel view area. I was sitting in my car for a moment before hiking up a trail. During that time, I witnessed a person walk in front of my vehicle, rip off the merchandise tag from her jacket and then throw it on the ground. She didn’t think twice about it; didn’t even try to pick it up, and continued to walk on. I got out of my vehicle, picked up and told her that she dropped this. She just smiled and continued to walk on to see the beauty of Yosemite. That experience is frustrating to me as the person intentionally dropped trash in a beauty place like Yosemite, not respecting what is causing the beauty (it definitely isn’t the trash that is causing the beauty — what would Yosemite look like if it was full of trash???).
In Yosemite, just above tunnel view, after watching someone drop trash.
Then the next day, on Saturday, I spent part of the morning and the early afternoon in Kings Canyon /Sequoia. I had grabbed a bag of pistachios on my drive up the mountains, from a local food stand. I sat on a bench next to General Grant’s tree enjoying the local pistachios and the big tree. People were walking by, and then one person reached through the wooden fence and picked up some trash (a paper towel, which wasn’t necessarily in the view of many people). This was wonderful to see from her. She went out of her way to ensure that trash wasn’t in the area.
At the General Grant tree, relaxing in the sun and eating local pistachios.
Two different situations, and two different outcomes….and two different mindsets. Which mindset do you want to have?
And I was able to pick up various trash items while in the parks. Here is one item that I picked up on my way out of the Kings Canyon / Sequoia.
Picked up this piece of trash on my way down the mountains from Kings Canyon / Sequoia.
