Day 18 - Arriving at Yosemite National Park (YNP 1 of 3)

On Sunday June 30th Lauren and I enjoyed a delish breakfast at Panera with the Stockton Haire's and hit the road. With Yosemite on the horizon the excitement was palpable!

Yosemite was by far the most exciting stop of our trip thus far... I mean, come on, Yosemite! Giant Sequoias, Granite cliffs, the majesty of the American Wild West--how could one not be excited!?!

The first week of Trip America Lauren and I blindly reserved a spot at Crane Flats, one of the last remaining 'reservable' sites inside Yosemite NP. We had no idea what the site would look like, or if it would be convenient to exploring the 70 sq mile behemoth that is Yosemite National Park, but when we checked online a couple of weeks prior, booking it seemed like a better plan than hoping for a first-come, first-served spot.

The drive in was fairly treacherous and I silently thanked my luck for this being a "your turn to drive" day.

GPS doesn't show the 300-foot drop off the right side of the road...

 We arrived at the park entrance in the early afternoon. The ranger on duty gave us the full bear spiel: "we're in bear country, bears have 10 x stronger scents than hounds*, they can smell unopened containers, and will tear the doors off your car to get to food." He went on tell us that this camp ground had a couple of meadows--prime bear lounging territory, and that we would be staying at site 310 the next three nights "beautiful site!"

The moment we approached our site we knew we had hit the jackpot! The secluded spot we had reserved was situated at the mouth of a large tree-lined meadow filled with wild flower.
 
I immediately strung my hammock between two meadow front trees. The tent was quick to follow and once we had established camp, Lauren took a tester-nap in the tent and, inspired by the natural beauty, I started work on an new oil painting.

My happy place.

Mosquito's aren't getting anywhere near Lauren!

 Before starting dinner we picked up firewood, ice, and beer from the nearby gas station. Once we were stocked up on essentials, we fired up the grill and heated up a feast of grilled cheese and tomato soup.

By 9pm our bellies were full, the darkness of night had set in, and we had a roaring fire going. Bears were by far the most prevalent conversation topic with me being the primary instigator.
I started with questions like:

• Do you thing we'll see a bear? 
• I wonder if bears are more active during the day or at night?

 And then I started in with the puns:

• I can hardly "bear" the suspense...
• That dinner was "bear-y" delicious....

And for the finale I told Lauren a home made joke or two:

• Me: Do bears prefer Nikes or Rebooks?
• Lauren (annoyed, tolerance running thin): I don't know, what?
• Me: Neither--they prefer to go Bear-footed--Ha!

Lauren's theorized that if we did see a bear that I would freak out. Clearly, a bear-phobia was the underlining force behind all my excited bear-chatter.  As we innocently chatted I couldn't help but notice a noise coming from the direction of the meadow.

"Woosh... Woosh..."

I cocked my head mid sentence. Did I just hear that? I thought. Better question, did Lauren just hear that? I tried to force the thought out of my head. My imagination was clearly playing tricks on me. The ranger said bears like meadows, our site was on a meadow. Lauren said that I was probably secretly afraid of bears. Of course I didn't hear that that noise.

"Woosh... Woosh..."

This time the noise was closer, and by the look on Lauren's face, she heard it too. The sound had come from the meadow and it was definitely a large animal...

Nervously, I rose, illuminated my head lamp, and shone it into the unknown. There standing tall and staring back at us with beady eyes of reflected light was a full grown.... doe!

Sigh!

The doe looked at us for a minute or too, took a few steps away from us "Woosh... Woosh" and continued to walk lazily through the meadow.

When the fire died down Lauren and I went to bed resting assured that even if we hear a sound coming from the meadow that sounds like a bear walking through the grass, it must just be a doe.

-Dan

*verification needed....