Squirrel stare
I do love to hate National Park Rangers. Although I need to be clear: I mean the cheerful and useless tourist-handlers at the information desks, not the dedicated conservation officers out in the field. Whether it’s Yellowstone, Yosemite, Banff or Flinders the conversation is always roughly the same…
Me: “We’d like to know if there are any good day hikes, maybe 5-6 hours long. Also, we enjoy looking for wildlife, do you know any good spots or any recent sightings?”
Ranger: “Hi. Thanks for asking whatever you asked, I ignored all that. Here, let me instead regurgitate to you the standard schpiel we give to all tourists. I think you may have used the word “hike” – there’s a lovely half-hour long hike about a mile down the road from here, you’ll surely love it. Meanwhile, here’s a map and brochure.”
Me: “Uh… thanks.”
We asked the lovely friendly ranger today if there was anywhere particular we should look out for bears. She suggested trying the orchard at Curry Village. “They like apples.” It’s April. Good grief.
Yosemite Falls
We spotted the grey fox on a night drive around some of the valley roads. Not much else, it still being full moon. In fact there’s a lot of excitement around Yosemite: the full moon when the waterfalls are in full flood in April will often cause a moonbow over the falls – like a rainbow, but at night.
Coyote on the rocks
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