two days in bear country

dear diary,

from the bay area we moved up in the california mountains, and were headed towards the yosemite national park. as we pulled up to the gates, we asked a ranger whether he could recommend nice hikes to us. he acted as if we were inquiring about the exchange rates between kuwaiti and new zealand currency. which made me wonder: from your outfit, it looks like you’re a ranger.

we did not let the nihilist guy in uniform interrupt our momentum, and went straight to the yosemite valley. this half-mile wide glacier-carved opening in the mountain range is pretty spectacular. the only thing that might interrupt your nature momentum, if you come here, is the hordes of tourist with sixteen cameras each. despite the crowd, renting a cabin turned out to be a nostalgic experience for us, since we both felt like in a time-capsule that took us back to the pioneer-camp days of the 80s: large number of people piled into small wooden cabins.


at the registration desk, the receptionist asked us if we were “bear aware.” this policy in the park comes from the rangers trying to keep the human’s food from the bears, who apparently break into coolers, tents and even cars of something smells good. thus everyone stores their food in bear-safe containers. at airports, unattended luggage is confiscated by security. in the park, bears secure unattended food immediately. see me watching our cooler?

we decided to try to get away from the crowds, and embarked on a “thigh-burning” (the guidebooks concept) 9.2 mile trip that climbed up a 7020 foot peek. this was a good and a bad idea at the same time. we enjoyed amazing views during our almost 3 hour long ascent, but it was a brutal hike. on the way back down, we pulled our brakes in every corner, which also started to wear out after a while.


this is were we arrived after the ridiculous climb.









day 2 we wanted to get away from the completely overrun valley, so we drove across the park section of the high sierra, where i (not eszter) jumped into an icy mountain lake, and an hour later we walked through snowy highland landscapes to discover another beautiful lake 3 miles from the main road.












right after the winter tour across toulumne meadow backland, we left yosemite and sailed towards death valley. we spent the night in lone pine, one of the closest towns to the famous valley…