Melina wanted to try her hand at journaling today so here is her account of the first part of our morning (“Mommy” of course refers to me, the others are a family we came across outside our hotel):
Today we woke up to a beautiful day. We woke up early to see the sights before every one else. As we were going to our car when we saw a mommy deer and a baby deer we wanted to see them up close so we walked up to them. As we went up another group came down. I didn’t here them personally but mommy sure did this is how the conversation went.
Man:here have some plastic if you crumble it the deer will come to you
Mommy:no i don’t want to make it think I have food
Boy:do you have chips we fed the deer chips
Mommy:that’s horrible!
Boy:what its not gonna kill it
Mommy:what horrible people
Anyway we were talking about the deer. Yes daddy took lot of pictures.
Look for the fawn’s ears behind the doe
(Karen again) So that began our day of animal sightings, but thankfully none of the rest of the people we met today were as destructive as those (and yes, I did tell them that they are horrible people).
We drove to Morro Rock first thing to avoid the crowds and we were the only ones there. It was a tough climb up steep rocky steps but the girls bounded up like mountain goats and we were at the top before we knew it, faced with unbelievable views.
We also had fun spotting lizards and beetles and even what we thought was a pika, but had a tail so apparently it can’t be. We have no idea what it is, though, since it looks just like a pika with a tail.
Pika? Mouse? Rat? It was squirrel-sized.
Then we drove down to Crescent Meadow and hiked the 3-ish mile Crescent and Log Meadow loops, again completely alone on the trails. The walk was gorgeous through fern covered sequoia forests alongside the lush meadows. We saw many more mule deer, birds, chipmunks, chicarees (the half-sized squirrels), and a yellow-bellied marmot (which has now become my new favorite insult: “you yellow bellied marmot!”). Note that we didn’t actually go into the meadows except for when walking on fallen sequoias, for a few reasons, but mainly to protect the meadow. Oh, and also because the meadows are full of poisonous plants that can give the equivalent of chemical burns wherever they touch your skin. Fun.
Our rental car in the tunnel log
Karen in Crescent Meadow
Yellow bellied marmot
One of about a million chipmunk pictures
All of the above happened before 11am and yet felt like a full and amazing day. We spent the rest of the day resting, exploring more trails, and even going to another ranger program on local birds. We had seen all the birds they talked about in the program (Stellars Jay’s, white headed woodpeckers, Ravens, peregrine falcon) except for the acorn woodpecker, which looks really cool and hangs out at lower elevations. We plan to keep an eye out for them as we leave the park tomorrow.
But by now we had walked through 5 or 6 meadows total on this trip with no bears to be seen. It has become our mission to see a bear. I have promised the girls their choice of any junk food they choose if they can spot a bear for me. Tomorrow we leave the parks and I am holding out hope for a sighting in the early morning…
Traveling Together 