Flora and fauna

This is not a real popular time of year to visit Yosemite, I suppose because a lot of the big waterfalls are dried up, but there's plenty to see right now that you don't see at other times of year.

Like, for instance, when Jeffrey and I were on our way to the Yosemite Point trailhead Tuesday morning, there were these acorns falling down at our feet, and Jeffrey looked up and said "Is that a squirrel's nest up there? Do the squirrels in Yosemite live in nests? Wait. It's moving. Holy Crap! It's a bear!"

And sure enough there was a juvenile black bear up in the Black Oak eating acorns, which are abundant this time of year.

Plus the mule deer bucks all have their new furry antlers, and the does have little spotted fawns following them around.

And we saw plenty of wildflowers, too, which people think you only see wildflowers in May and June, but no. Go up to the higher elevations, and you'll see clusters of them wherever there's a spring, and there's plenty of springs on the Yosemite Point trail.

And the wild blueberries are ripe, which was a good thing for me and Jeffrey, because we were both craving fruit like crazy once we got a couple thousand feet above the valley.

Yeah, it's about a seven-hour hike to Yosemite Point and back, and we both got crazy hungry up there! Thank goodness we didn't run into any of those big cornfed Midwestern tourists. I swear I would have grabbed a rock and gone Donner Party on 'em.

Kurt "big daddy" True
15 september 2006