Consolation prize at Yosemite
I took some family members to Yosemite yesterday and was hoping to stay until sunset. We ended up having head out a couple hours before the light would've started getting that great evening color.
We'd stopped at several places along the valley floor, but they were all crowded enough I didn't even take my camera out of the car. As we approached the gas station at Crane Flat, I noticed a couple of people standing on the side of the road and cars stacking up quickly.
Aha! Bear jam ahead!
We parked at the gas station and headed down to the meadow along the side of Big Oak Road. Rangers arrived to direct traffic just as we got there and sure enough, there was a good sized bear munching grass/weeds in the meadow.
So, I consider this my "consolation prize" for having to miss sunset shots (a fair swap any day!).
The two white dots on the shadow side of the bear's face are bugs swarming near it. I left them (for now) since they're part of the scene (at smaller sizes for this picture though, they bug me).
This is our third bear sighting in Yosemite in the past month and the second there at the meadow by the gas station. A Ranger I spoke with said there's been a bear in that meadow fairly often lately. The time of day varies though - last time we caught it there about four hours earlier than yesterday's sighting.
We'd stopped at several places along the valley floor, but they were all crowded enough I didn't even take my camera out of the car. As we approached the gas station at Crane Flat, I noticed a couple of people standing on the side of the road and cars stacking up quickly.
Aha! Bear jam ahead!
We parked at the gas station and headed down to the meadow along the side of Big Oak Road. Rangers arrived to direct traffic just as we got there and sure enough, there was a good sized bear munching grass/weeds in the meadow.
So, I consider this my "consolation prize" for having to miss sunset shots (a fair swap any day!).
The two white dots on the shadow side of the bear's face are bugs swarming near it. I left them (for now) since they're part of the scene (at smaller sizes for this picture though, they bug me).
This is our third bear sighting in Yosemite in the past month and the second there at the meadow by the gas station. A Ranger I spoke with said there's been a bear in that meadow fairly often lately. The time of day varies though - last time we caught it there about four hours earlier than yesterday's sighting.
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Good catch!
A few weeks ago, one of the Rangers told us they've had a larger-than-normal number of bears hit by cars this year (due to the bears being "public" so often).
Last time I was in the Park, we saw a bear at the meadow by Crane Flat gas station on the way in and again many hours later on the way out. Either one bear had eaten an impressive amount of salad in that meadow or they were taking turns amusing the tourists.
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Thanks! Crane Flat (meadow by the gas station) has been where I've seen bears a half dozen times this year.
I've also seen them along Southside Drive on the valley floor (before Sentinel Bridge though). Saw one again today at dusk along Northside Drive a ways before El Cap Meadow. It was a smaller bear (but larger than a cub). That's the fifth bear I've seen on the valley floor this summer (to be fair, four of them were traveling together the first time we saw bears on the valley floor).
I'll keep an eye out as I pass the other places you mention in hopes of spotting more.
Thank you. I'm still hoping to get a really good shot of one of these.