BLACK LABEL: Shadows Over Yosemite

There are several ways to get to the Yosemite National Park in Northern California, but the most scenic is a long, winding road through the mountains. As you drive north on Wawona Road, the small shrubs give way to the large pine trees that line the two-car road. The aroma of pine trees fill your car as you slowly drive left and right as the road follows the contours of the mountain. And then, when you turn around the final bend, you enter in a dark tunnel. The tunnel was carved directly through the mountain, through solid granite, and it’s the longest tunnel in the California Highway system at 4,233 feet. The darkness envelops you when you first enter the tunnel and at times it seems like it will never end.

But when you reach the end and finally exit the tunnel, light and warmth floods into the windshield and you are exposed to the most beautiful scenery in the Yosemite valley. From this location you can see El Capitan mountain to your left, a waterfall on your right, and in the rear, the famous Half Dome mountain. It is a stunning, picturesque landscape and it immediately becomes obvious why Yosemite National Park has almost four million visitors every year.

Unfortunately for four innocent women, there's another darkness in the Yosemite valley area, and it isn't the tunnel. It’s a person, and though, he’s just a man of flesh and blood, he managed to cast a shadow over the valley. That shadow isn’t straight like the tunnel that leads into the valley. It is more like the winding road that leads up to it, with twists and turns and bends. Disfigured and ugly.

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