A racoon, two deer and a Coyote

Well, we're back from two days and two nights in Yosemite National Park. It's a legendary place and for good reason as its simply spectacular. It took us four hours to drive from San Francisco passing through countryside reminiscint of England - rolling green hills, cows in the meadow etc - before the hills became snowy mountains and the mountains the mighty Sierra Nevada range.
We got our first sighting of "half-dome", the iconic semi-circular chunk of rock rising up from the valley floor about 2o minutes after passing into the park. Next to it was 3,000+ feet of rising sheer granite known as "El Capitan". As I said, simply spectacular. Driving down to the valley floor we passed meadows and hills deep in snow and forests of enormous oak and redwood trees.
At night and in the morning it was freezing. Yesterday, we did a mile-long walk to a place called "Mirror Lake" (named so for its perfect reflections of the mountains and countryside, when not frozen over) and it was like walking across an enormous ice-cube. But it was worth slipping and sliding for the panoramic views of the mountains, the streams racing over snow-covered rocks and the hope that perhaps a bear or mountain lion might, peacefully, cross our path. We were definitely in mountain lion country as one sign gave specific instructions what to do if confronted by one including: make yourself as big as possible, if necessary, pick up stones to throw at it, but what ever you do, don't turn your back and start running. Interestingly, in the 120 year history of the park (it became a national park in 1890) the only animal to have killed anyone was a deer of all things, which sadly gorged a child to death in the 1970s.

As for the animals, we were lucky enough to spot two male mule deer, a racoon that stood on its hindlegs when we approached and the highlight for me, a coyote roaming across a snowy field in search of food. We did see other "animals" courtesy of the park ranger who led us on a nature tour. But I should be more specific, she hauled an assortment of wild rodents, a mole, an ermine, a grey fox and finally a mountain lion (or puma) from her backpack. Ok so it was just the heads and hides of dearly departed animals, but it was cool to see them up close, feel their fur and get a sense of their size. I was of course waiting for her to haul out a bear as the final animal (she was moving up in size with each one she pulled out) but had to be satisfied with photographs of these.
On the subject of bears, there are very big bears in the park, black bears, and one of the things we had to sign upon checking into the lodge was a declaration that we were "bear aware". Primarily this means that we acknowledge that we know not to leave any food in our cars as bears continually break in and destroy cars when they scent food inside. In the lobby of the hotel they played a video on loop of a bear jumping through a side door of a car and exiting a short while later with a bundle of food in its mouth. As for the car, it looked like its insides had been ripped out.

Even though we did not see any bears or mountain lions it was a wonderful two days and two nights in Yosemite. We stayed deep within the valley, surrounded by snow, forests of oaks and redwood trees, soaring granite cliffs and majestic waterfalls tumbling hundreds of feet into enormous clouds of mist. I could not stop taking photos. Speaking of photos, all of these were taken by my aunt Cecile.