Bears, Hikes, and Campfires

This weekend was yet another fun filled weekend. This time we spent the weekend camping at Yosemite with two other couples. Since we had originally planned to hike Half Dome we reserved 2 campsites on the valley floor. This proved to be very entertaining. The first night we enjoyed the campfire, smores and wine. We all went to bed, but at about 5am, we awoke to a big noise. I immediately thought "bear" and I was right. One of our camping neighbors did not put all their food in the bear box so a momma bear and her cub payed them a visit! All of a sudden I heard "What do I do" and another voice saying " I think you just let it eat it". A few minutes later the bear took off. The guys were pretty wound up and kept talking for a while. Then it got quiet as the guys went back to bed. All of a sudden we heard a similar loud noise and some more screaming from the guys. This time the bear jumped in the back of the pickup truck and found some dog food. Apparently the bear stood up on her hind legs in the bed of the truck with the dog food in her mouth. I obviously didn't see all of this since I was in the tent, but the vision just makes me laugh every time!So Saturday night comes and we are hoping to not get woken up to bear attacks. All of a sudden at 1am we get woken up to someone (most likely a ranger) screaming "BEAR!" followed by a lot of noise (this is how they scare the off). Apparently one of our other neighbors left a backpack out. So both nights we got woken up to Bear incidents. Friday was definitely the worst. I must say we are kinda glad to be home in our own beds, and we don't have to worry about hearing bears attacking campsites.

The rest of the trip was wonderful. Dave and I did 2 short hikes on Friday. Then on Saturday we all hiked the panorama trail. This trail was amazing. There were constant beautiful views of Yosemite, plus Illoutte Falls, Vernal Falls, and Nevada Falls. Being that it is late in the summer all the falls were pretty low in water levels, but they are always nice to see. The low water levels also meant we could play in the water safely. So we sll put our feet in the water at the top of Illoutte falls. It was nice just spending time up there relaxing. Sunday we parted our ways and Dave and I decided to rent bikes and travel around the valley floor.