When will I ever see a bear?!

As you may have been able to guess, our time spent in Yosemite National Park did not result in the visual acquisition of any bear, large or small. This causes some sadness in my heart. I have never seen a bear in the wild, and it looks like I will have to wait a good bit before I get that chance.

Despite the lack of bear sightings, Yosemite was an incredible time. Our first two nights, we camped north of Yosemite Valley at the White Wolf campground. We got luck with our campsite. It had a creek running through the back of it, it was seperated from the other campsites by a large rock structure, and it was the largest in the campground. Woo hoo. We also got to build a fridge (out of rocks) in the creek until the park ranger found it and told us to put our stuff in the bear box.

The only seeming downside to the site, was that it happened to be the dwelling place of a young man named Micah. Micah is the five-year-old son of the Campground Host. He first made his presence known by awakening Sarah from her nap in order to tell us that we had to move our tent into the main campground area so that he could create a "backpacing atmosphere" in our campsite. He then tried to destroy our creek-fridge and kick me.

As that day and the next wore on, we got on Micah's good side by feeding him dinner and playing hide and seek with him in the rocks. In the end, we actually felt a bit sad as we left White Wolf Campground, knowing that we would probably not get another chance to see Micah. Unless of course, we do as he requested and come back in 11 years to teach him how to drive. Trust me, you need to meet Micah in order to understand.

The highlight of our Yosemite visit (for jason) was the hike to Lembert Dome. While, by some standards, this was not a particularly grueling nor impressive hike. It kicked our butts and we still made it to the top of Lembert Dome for an incredible view. We actually thought we had reached the top of the dome two times before that, only to see higher peaks in front of us. Those false summits will getcha.

For our last night, we decided to camp down in Yosemite Valley, the tourist trap that it is. While down there, I read that 95% of visitors to Yosemite only go to the Valley. In short, it was crowded. Though because we were there on a Monday it wasn't as bad as it could have been. We got a chance to see most of the necessary sites that one is supposed to see when visiting Yosemite including Yosemite Falls, Half-Dome, El Capitan, and Bridalveil Falls. We also spent about 45 seconds in the freezing cold river, this way the Pacific Ocean wouldn't feel nearly as cold.


PS Our attempts to upload pictures have failed, due to technical difficulty, but we do have all of the good Yosemite pictures in our photo album, including pictures with Micah and of the best views.