A is for Apple, B is for Bears, C is for Crap...those are bears!!!

The last time we spoke, we were in Yosemite National Park. Well, we've left Yosemite, but we did spend a week in the park and had a great time during our little visit. While we were there, we hiked almost 70 miles of trails, saw some amazing waterfalls, and some even more amazing rock formations. The place is grand, spectacular, incredible...you get the picture. We only had 5 days of activity in the park due to some thunderstorms on one day and a surprise snow storm that left 6-8” of white stuff and basically left us stranded on another day... which gave a couple of days of rest that were much appreciated by me. And yes, rest is a relative term. On our days of rest, we still hiked 6-7 miles (which seems like child's play after 15 miles the day before), took care of laundry and grocery shopping, and explored the local towns. Really, there is nothing super exciting to report about our stay there, other than we loved it.

If you have never been to Yosemite, all that I can say to you is that it is one of those places that everyone should see at least once. It now holds the record in my book as having what could be the best view that I have ever seen at Glacier Point (pretty amazing). And at this point in our travels, we have seen some pretty incredible views. So, what I am getting at is go and see it, you'll be glad you did.

On to the next spot. We are now at Sequoia National Park, which is America's 2^nd national park, it's home to some pretty huge trees, and it's great. As of today it is officially my favorite spot on earth. Yosemite was my favorite spot just 2 days ago and about a week and a half ago, Bend was my favorite spot on earth so don't hold too much stock in any of my favorites...just know that this place is great. It's so great that it currently holds first place.

When we got to the park, we did our usual routine of checking in at the ranger station, finding out about the must sees, and learning what trails are open. The ranger gave us our needed info and then warned us that the bears are extremely active right now, especially the mama bears with their cubs, so be careful and don't leave any food lying around to attract them. Whatever. We've heard so many bear reports in the last year that proved to be unfruitful that we were starting to believe that there were no bears anywhere except for at the zoos. I can't tell you how many times I have coated the inside of Brenda's pack with peanut butter just to try to see a bear. It's never worked.

Anyway, one of my favorite things is a big tree. One of my other favorite things is wildlife. This place has more of both than we have seen anywhere else. In the last 24 hours, we have hiked roughly 12 miles through the park, we have seen about 12,000 giant trees, and we've spotted 8 bears. Yep, 8 bears. If you are doing the math, that works out to a giant tree just about every 4^th step and a bear every 1 ½ miles. That's some pretty good odds for seeing a giant tree and a bear.

The first hike that we did was through one of the old growth Sequoia groves called “The Big Tree Trail” (not a clever name but very fitting). There were tons of big trees. Really, there were more big trees than I have ever seen in my life. I'm talking huge trees. Massive trees. And what was better, was the fact that we spotted 5 bears in the middle of those enormous trees. Count 'em...1, 2, 3, 4, 5...yep, 5 bears. Amazing!

The second hike that we decided to do was in another stand of trees that surrounded a place called “Crescent Grove”. We actually decided to join a few of the hikes in the area together and do a big loop to really get the feel of the place. Off we go and what do you know...more bears. These ones were a little too close for comfort though. We were about 4 miles into our hike when we heard some grunting and rustling in the bushes. I should say that I noticed after the fact that I heard grunting and rustling coming from the bushes...I was just too enthralled in the scenery to pay attention to those noises. We turned a corner and were face to face with 2 cute and cuddly little bear cubs...and the grunting was coming from their not too happy mamma bear that was right beside us. Crap...those are bears!!!

I should tell you right about now that I am in general not too afraid of black bears. They are normally pretty docile and normally fairly afraid of humans...unless you get between a mamma and her cubs...which we did...which is not good. As soon as we saw the cubs and noticed mamma's not too happy posturing, I peed a little in my pants, screamed like a school girl, and then we stopped and backed out of the area nice and calm like. We ended up waiting about 100 yards back on the trail to see if the bears would disperse so we could continue our hike. After about 5 minutes of waiting with mamma watching us intently, we decided to go back the way we came. 4 miles of back tracking wasn't all that fun, but the good part of the story is that we came face to face with some bears and lived, and even better, when we back tracked to the other side of the grove, we were able to get some good photos of the bears in action. Pretty amazing!

So here we are in Sequoia National Park. Other than the bears, we have seen some truly incredible trees, visited the largest tree in the world (incredible), and climbed to one of the high peaks. We are going to spend a couple more days here exploring and then move north to King's Canyon National Park. After that...who knows???

Here are some photos from the last week and a half. Unfortunately, they really don't capture how amazing some of these things truly are. Trust me when I tell you that this stuff is amazing because really, it is.

UPDATE:  On our last hike of our last day in the park, we spotted 5 more bears and had another way to close for comfort encounter when a big black bear stepped out from around a giant tree right in front of us on the trail.  This one was so close that I could have scratched his little head right between the ears and said hi.  After that encounter, I heard words that I have never heard before from Brenda and will probably never hear again..."I am done hiking today."  It only took 13 bears to get Brenda to give up on a hike.

Brenda at the bottom of Yosemite Falls

The tippety-top of Glacier Point with Half Dome in the background

This guy is not our friend

just a little waterfall

Looking down on Vernal Falls

Tree Hugger

Another view point on the hike up to Glacier Point

This little guy just broke into the honey jar.  If you look closely you can see the bees swarming.

This is the Mamma and cubs that surprised us on the trail.  She's not as friendly as she looks.

That's Brenda checking out the largest tree in the world.  Trust me when I tell you that the thing is HUGE!