I’m on bear watch deep in the
heart of Yosemite valley. Yosemite is an
incredible place. Towering grey peaks
surround us on all sides and today, there’s a dark menacing cloud hovering
above bringing with it the threat of rain.
It’ll be the first time we’ve seen any since leaving the UK.
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| View of the Half Dome |
We got here via the Tioga Pass
road (Highway 120 from Lee Vining). Luckily
the pass was still open as it’s often closed due to snowfall at this time of year. If you are travelling to Yosemite from the
East, enter via the Tioga Pass as its probably one of the most scenic roads you’ll
ever drive.
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| Views from the Tioga Pass Road |
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| Driving the Tioga Pass |
OK, it may be a bit of a tortuous
winding road that goes on for miles but it’ll give you a feel for this amazing
national park and there’s so many places for photo opportunities. It took us twice as long to get to our end
destination due to all the stopping and starting but it was worth it.
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| Tenaya Lake |
It’s something else to check in
to your hotel and be told at reception to read a disclaimer about bears and
safety precautions to take in regard to food whilst in the park. Bears it seems are greedy buggers who’ll stop
at nothing to get at your grub. They’ll
break into parked cars if they so much as sniff cookie crumbs or discarded
candy wrappers. Do bears shit in the woods? No but I will be if I come face to face with
a hungry one whilst on one of the hiking trails.
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| View from the Swinging Bridge |
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| El Capitan |
Our hotel is what I’d call a
Grizzly Adams vacation hideaway.
Yosemite Lodge at the Falls is a collection of rustic pre-fab chalets nestling at the base of a
very large mountain right in the middle of a pine forest. It’s idyllic.
We’re in the Azalea block on the ground floor which is handy for bear
watching as the patio doors in the bedroom open right out into the pines.
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| Yosemite Lodge at the Falls - Azalea Room 4604 |
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| View from our bedroom patio doors |
Will be settling down later on
with a bottle of wine and a pair of binoculars ready to spot anything that
looks remotely bear-like and hungry.
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