Figures on the Rocks

As I sat on the rim of the meadow at The Ahwahnee, I perused a map of the park, looking for inspiration. I was seated about 100 yards in front of the massive granite face of Glacier Point, trying to see if there was something that would motivate us to get back out there on another adventure, instead of packing up our stuff and heading home.  The air was still crisp and I was practically alone, save for several Stellar's jays chattering around in the tall Sequoia trees, when I looked over my shoulder and saw an elderly gentleman quietly tidying up the patio area.

He was dressed in khaki from head to toe and on his chest was a name tag with his name and city of origin, just like all of the other Ahwahnee employees. Realizing I didn't have a lot of time to make up my mind about what to do, I began chatting with him about our failed attempt at finding bears, and questioning him about what would be a nice alternative.  At this point, Brad came up with a couple of cups of coffee, and he asked us what, other than bears, we might like to see.  We threw out several ideas... Bridalveil Falls, bus to Glacier Point, rock climbers.  He nodded and began talking about looking closely at the granite before us for faces, an eagle, a clock, and other items of interest. 

Brad was the first one of us to identify the clock, and even though I said I could see it, I wasn't telling the truth. I would be more adept at both identifying and describing the location of the interesting shapes on the granite walls after the hike he recommended we take: heading toward Mirror Lake and then around its perimeter.

Without A Computer

I am currently only using my iPad and am forced again to write inside this blasted app.  I just had an excellent post that is now lost. I'm so sad right now. I've lost my inspiration.  Sorry!

There really should be some sort of undo button or something!

Lookin' for Bears in all the Wrong Places

          I awoke around 5 o’clock in the morning thinking it was surely early enough to spot something wild outside.  Over the course of our trip, I had gone from extremely frightened of spotting a bear to longing to witness one of nature’s rarest wonders.  I had seen at an information kiosk the day before that some folks had spotted a mother bear and her cubs someplace near Glacier point. But I figured that getting there and back in time to check out of our room would be next to impossible.  What we decided to do was take the car over to the trailhead that leads to Vernal Falls, and then follow the trail to the falls, back down the John Muir Trail, and back to the room. Our thinking was that our early start might yield our highly coveted bear sighting and we would also enjoy a refreshing morning hike.

          We were becoming more adept at figuring out where we were going in Yosemite on foot, but we were lost in the car!  It took us about 30 minutes to get to the trail head, and we had to park some distance from it in the first place.  What was worse, however, was the sad reality that the closer we got to the trail head, the number of experienced hikers sharing the trail with us was increasing exponentially.  I knew there wouldn’t possibly be any bear sightings on this hike.  There were simply too many people.  It seemed surreal hiking with this many people headed in the same direction on the exact same trail, and my resolve began to shrink down to a fizzle.   This was not how I wanted to spend my last morning in Yosemite.  We stopped to discuss our strategy and decided, regretfully, that this was not the time to embark on this particular journey.

          By now, we had wasted about an hour or so, and we were both frustrated and disappointed, but once we found a short, paved, empty trail that led us to Happy Isles we perked up a bit.  It had the quiet serenity that we desired, yet became stimulating when we both decided to work our way across a fallen log over some threatening rapids below.  As we hiked around the isle, there were a few times I thought I’d spotted a bear, but upon closer inspection I was disappointed every time.  As we walked back to our parked car, it felt like we were going the wrong way on a one way street as we watched hiker after hiker heading toward the trail head.  Once we were driving back towards the hotel, the park became peacefully quiet and secluded again. We even noticed deer grazing in the meadow and when we stopped the car to snap a photo, they just kept on grazing as if we weren’t intruding on their breakfast at all.

            It was our last morning in Yosemite, and by now we knew it was far too late to sight a bear.  We opted to take a seat (like we had seen so many tourists before us do) outside the Awhahnee next to the meadow and just take in the beauty.  We wanted to do something fun before our time was up.  Fortunately for us, we met a staff worker who was outside the lodge and would help us make it happen.