Visiting Wild America: Yosemite National Park

I think I finally found a place that rivals the spectacle that I witnessed in Banff. Yosemite National Park is massive in every way possible. I spent two days in the park. The first day was spent completely in Yosemite Valley, the place where everyone goes to take pictures of El Capitan, Yosemite Falls (the highest falls in North America), and Half Dome. I arrived in this part of the park early on Friday morning after pitching my tent on the side of the highway just outside the park in Staniclaus National Forest. The previous night, I spent driving through the entire park, from its western entrance at Tioga Pass, east though the high mountain passes, all the way to the lower, more heavily forested eastern side, without finding an open camp site! The entire park was booked solid. I had no choice but to throw up my tent in the woods outside the park. It was kind of scary at first, but it's legal, and free! Ok, back to Yosemite Valley....so Im down in the Valley at 730am, before the crowds arrive, hiking amongst giant old growth douglas firs and sugar pines that are easily 200 ft tall and over 5 feet in diameter. And watching over me the entire time was the towering colossal rock known as El Capitan, which skies to over 3000ft above the valley floor on it's north side. The hike was great though, with Pacific-coast Flycatcher and White-headed Woodpeckers new birds for me. At the halfway point, I came upon Bridalveil Falls, one of the known nesting locations for Black Swifts, a rarely seen bird that only nests behind waterfalls, and can usually only be found at dawn or dusk when it's flying to or from its nest site. I decided I'd go back to the falls at dawn to look for them. In the meantime, I hiked back to my car, went to a nearby picnic area, and boiled a pot of water so that I could cook about 3 lbs of pasta. Sorry mom, but my eating has not been the best. Mostly gas station food, with occasional produce. Pasta was the best thing I ate today, and I ate it all. It was a good thing, though, because ahead of me lay a 5 mile out, 5 mile back hike up and out of the valley to Glacier Point, which affords the onlooker unparalleled views of Yosemite Falls, Half Dome, and all the surrounding mountains. But its a hell of a climb. Over 3000ft elevation climb. I was wearing a long sleeve and jeans. Not the smartest decision, but Im trying to keep the sun off me for a little. I was huffing and puffing on the way up, wishing I was those people passing me going downhill all cheerful the other way past me. But the hike was completely worth it. Although crowded at the top (you can also drive to Glacier Point, which is what most people do), the views surpassed my expectations. The grandeur of the area was almost sickening. I housed down a few ice cream bars, a bag of cheetos and a root beer, then napped for a half hour on a rock overlooking the valley. People were walking around me, but I could have cared less. I was tired, and I was in a beautiful place. Nobody was going to bother me at this point.
Eventually, I knew I had to hike back down before it got dark. The hike down still took almost 2 hours, but it was easier than going up, as long as you dont mind the pounding on your knees....more to come... computer is about to die!
Hey, sorry for the delay! McDonald's provides internet but no outlets. Anyway, after my hike down, I headed over to Bridaveil Falls, about a mile away to watch Black Swifts come into their roost for the night. These small birds are extremely elusive and hard to find. Funny enough, they are very selective at choosing a nest location. They only live behind waterfalls. During the day, they fly 1000s of feet in the air eating insects, so the only time you can catch a glimpse of one is at dawn or dusk when they come back to their nests for the night. I climbed hand and foot over some boulders onto a small ledge where I was able to watch a few enter the backside of the waterfall before it got too dark, at which point, I got back in my car and drove back to my roadside campsite for a second night.
Day 2 found me poking around the eastern part of the park, completely avoiding the Valley, where all the tourists would be flocking to on a beautiful weekend like this. But my time was well spent. Today I viewed the other famous massive landmark of Yosemite: the Sequoia. Sequoia's are the 2nd tallest tree in the world and the 2nd oldest, to the Redwood and Bristlecone Pine, respectively (both also found in Ca). But in terms of overall size, they are the largest living things on earth. And its easy to believe. Yosemite has a few groves of these behemoths, and the one I visited had about 7 living trees, all of which were quite humbling to stand beneath. I don't lie when I say that one of the trees had a trunk diameter of close to 20 feet. Another dead tree had a tunnel carved through it which automobiles used to drive through back in the day. All the trees had to be at least 200 feet high. Why Sequoias grow so large, I have absolutely no clue, but even when surrounded by an old growth forest of Douglas Firs and Sugar Pines that have trunks of 6 or 7 feet in diameter- respectable no doubt- the sequoias tower over all.
I was pretty tired after gawking at Sequoias, combined with yesterdays hike, so I rested for a bit in my car, did a bit more hiking, went for a run, and then spent the waning hours of light hiking through a nearby meadow where Great Gray Owls are sometimes spotted. I'd already missed this bird once in Canada at a staked out location. But despite my best mouse squealing impressions (anyone can do a mouse squeal; just lick the front of your hand and kiss it. It gets kind of slobbery but it sounds like an injured animal, which attracts predators), I could not coax an owl out of the forest. It was pretty dark by the time I decided to head out, and I still had to walk back through the woods. Im not usually scared of the dark, but the woods get me every time. Thoughts of Blair Witch Project and other horrors of the like creep into my head. I just sang to myself and focused on getting to my car asap. All was fine, and my third night at my roadside tent site went off without a hitch. Except the fact that my entryway zipper no longer zips. It's only closed 3/4 of the way. To keep out the cold, I have to use duct tape on the rest of the opening to seal myself in. Plans to get that fixed are to come.