Cybrespyydre / Cy

I have not been there in about 30 years now. So I can not vouch for how it is today, as the world is so full of change.

But, every fall, from the time I was a toddler, until I was about 9 or 10 years old, my parents & I, then a few years later when my sister was born, the 4 of us would make the (approx) 10 hour drive from Santa Barbara, CA to Yosemite National Park.

Of course, in the above posted picture, I was only 10 months old, so naturally, I don’t think that at that age I remember or even participated in any of the things I will write of. However, It’s the only picture I have on my hard drive of a trip to Yosemite.

We always had a pre-arranged resevation for a cabin. I don’t actually remember the length of time actually spent at Yosemite, but would estimate it to be around 7 – 10 days. I absolutely loved it! It was so exciting, getting there, running around “our” cabin, figuring out which bed was to be “ours”, etc.. All the “wild” animals there did not seem very wild at all. Although there were signs all over warning “Please do not feed the animals”, I believe that for the most part, they were ignored by most.

Some of the things I remember the most were getting up real early in the morning. There would still be morning dew on the grass and there would be dear everywhere in the not too far away open fields. They would be (I guess) drinking the dew from the grass. My Dad & I would go there with I believe they were peanuts? I think, and be real quiet, holding out the nuts toward the deer and often they would very shyly come close enough briefly to feed from our hands.

Also, there would be squirrels. Lots & lots of squirels, often running around on the deck of our cabin. Again, we would offer them food, and they were less shy than the deer, they would boldly come right up, often runnng right up to sit on my knee if I were sitting down to eat from my hand. Then, occasionally, there would be a black bear or two hanging around outside of the cabin. I remember feeding them apples. I think it freaked my mom out a bit, doing that. But I was young, and as I still do, I simply adored animals – especially wildlife, as I was used to the domestic cats and dogs of the city. Being so close to wild animals that in a different environment, I would have never been able to be so close to.

My other fond memory (of course, it also involved some of the not-so-wild wildlife of the area), was that every evening, we would go to the (I’m sure that now I would regard it as quite touristy) main restaurant to eat dinner. I would save whatever I didn’t eat in a napkin to feed to the many, many racoons that quite boldly hung around right outside the diner. Again, there were many signs posted against feeding the racoons. At the time, I found that to be not very nice, as the racoons were quite friendly, if not downright demanding! I found much delight in holding out food and they usually several at a time would come right up to me and be more than happy and content to ear from my hands. I suppose that to the restaurant owners and probably to many of the adult visitors, the racoons were probably annoying. However, to a young girl who had never seen a racoon other than at Yosemite, much less been able to feed one, I found them to be fascinating and obviously very memorable, as I have not been there in as I think I said for over 30 years now.

But, I also remember the waterfalls, the running streams, the mountains, the general beauty of the place, and that at least I’m sure is timeless.

I’m sure that it is a wonderful place to go for people of all ages.

Cy

P.S. I only cheked “unwilling to give travel tips” because I was not old enough when I was there to have a clue as how to give travel tips.

I have not been there in about 30 years now. So I can not vouch for how it is today, as the world is so full of change.

But, every fall, from the time I was a toddler, until I was about 9 or 10 years old, my parents & I, then a few years later when my sister was born, the 4 of us would make the (approx) 10 hour drive from Santa Barbara, CA to Yosemite National Park.

Of course, in the above posted picture, I was only 10 months old, so naturally, I don’t think that at that age I remember or even participated in any of the things I will write of. However, It’s the only picture I have on my hard drive of a trip to Yosemite.

We always had a pre-arranged resevation for a cabin. I don’t actually remember the length of time actually spent at Yosemite, but would estimate it to be around 7 – 10 days. I absolutely loved it! It was so exciting, getting there, running around “our” cabin, figuring out which bed was to be “ours”, etc.. All the “wild” animals there did not seem very wild at all. Although there were signs all over warning “Please do not feed the animals”, I believe that for the most part, they were ignored by most.

Some of the things I remember the most were getting up real early in the morning. There would still be morning dew on the grass and there would be dear everywhere in the not too far away open fields. They would be (I guess) drinking the dew from the grass. My Dad & I would go there with I believe they were peanuts? I think, and be real quiet, holding out the nuts toward the deer and often they would very shyly come close enough briefly to feed from our hands.

Also, there would be squirrels. Lots & lots of squirels, often running around on the deck of our cabin. Again, we would offer them food, and they were less shy than the deer, they would boldly come right up, often runnng right up to sit on my knee if I were sitting down to eat from my hand. Then, occasionally, there would be a black bear or two hanging around outside of the cabin. I remember feeding them apples. I think it freaked my mom out a bit, doing that. But I was young, and as I still do, I simply adored animals – especially wildlife, as I was used to the domestic cats and dogs of the city. Being so close to wild animals that in a different environment, I would have never been able to be so close to.

My other fond memory (of course, it also involved some of the not-so-wild wildlife of the area), was that every evening, we would go to the (I’m sure that now I would regard it as quite touristy) main restaurant to eat dinner. I would save whatever I didn’t eat in a napkin to feed to the many, many racoons that quite boldly hung around right outside the diner. Again, there were many signs posted against feeding the racoons. At the time, I found that to be not very nice, as the racoons were quite friendly, if not downright demanding! I found much delight in holding out food and they usually several at a time would come right up to me and be more than happy and content to ear from my hands. I suppose that to the restaurant owners and probably to many of the adult visitors, the racoons were probably annoying. However, to a young girl who had never seen a racoon other than at Yosemite, much less been able to feed one, I found them to be fascinating and obviously very memorable, as I have not been there in as I think I said for over 30 years now.

But, I also remember the waterfalls, the running streams, the mountains, the general beauty of the place, and that at least I’m sure is timeless.

I’m sure that it is a wonderful place to go for people of all ages.

Cy

P.S. I only cheked “unwilling to give travel tips” because I was not old enough when I was there to have a clue as how to give travel tips.

I’ve been here for 8 years now, and it seems that the longer I’m here, the more obstacles seem to get between me and the state line!