Just wanted to share a few pictures I took while in Yosemite this past week. I got a new digital camera. Woohoo! :-)

Yosemite Falls:

Half Dome:

A hungry coyote!

The Merced river:

Snow on the Hwy 120 pass:

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), April 23, 2004

Answers

A few shots from San Francisco... it was a bit cloudy that day:

The Golden Gate Bridge:

Looking back at downtown San Francisco:

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), April 23, 2004.

I wondered where you were! Oh man, I hate your guts! I've been building on the new place from dawn till dark every day for weeks, and now I gotta look at this?

-------

Yosemite calls to me in the early hours.

I wake to waterfall and stirring of cedars.

Swaying redwoods whisper in business meetings,

With voices hoarse by ocean clouds.

Yellowstone whistles beyond my shoulder

In supermarket lines and traffic jams.

Behind closed eyes, I soar above canyonlands,

Their ancient trees reaching up to me with

Beggars limbs.

--

Your photos are wonderful, again! If I can get the house done, Kit and I will take the big one this summer. Across NM and Nevada, up along the coast highway to Seattle, over to Jasper (and Trish’s), then back down through the Rockies. I say I’m going every summer, then something happens, but it looks good for this year. I’ll know for sure soon, and post a tentative trip plan.

(I was only kidding about hating your guts and all)

-- miserablejealousold Lon (lgal@exp.net), April 23, 2004.

I, uh, don't think that was a coyote.

Looks much more wolfish ....

(Coyotes look like small, wrong-side of the tracks, half-fed, disgraced relatives of your family dog.

(Not to slur any of the small, wrong-side of the tracks, half-fed, disgraced relatives of the family dogs huddled under redneck's front porch, that is.)

-- Robert & Jean (getingwarmer@ga.inthespring), April 23, 2004.

Wow, Gayla! Great pics :-) I agree with The Georgians, though, the coyote looks like a wolf to me. There are a bunch of wolf pics at:

http://home.swipnet.se/~w-27834/wolf/pictures/thumbs/arkiv1.html

You could go see for yourself. The first of the pics looks alot like your "coyote".

Lon, really?!?!? Let me know when you'll be up this way, and I will make sure I have some time off to spend showing you around!

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), April 23, 2004.

Beautiful pics Gayla! Congrats on getting the Digi camera!

I was lucky to go to Yosmite once camping and hiking for a week, and based on your pics it is still as scenic and nice as I remember. I felt like I was IN a photo 'cause everywhere I looked was so breathtaking. What a change from NJ lol.

The only other place I've ever been that I thought was as continually awesome was Hawaii. Same thing there. Everywhere you look is worth a pic. Maybe someday we'll go back again who knows!

-- (sonofdust@almost.free), April 23, 2004.

OH come on, guys. The only thing missing from that coyote is a set of ACME rocket skates. Ain't no wolf, just well fed; probably a park coyote, fat from sandwiches and smores.

And yes, Trish, this just might be the year! I sold the van motorhome and picked up a little tiny old Toyota that has a bed I actually fit into. It'll just be me and Kit this trip, as the missus has other vacation plans. If we make it, I plan to be on the road about 6 weeks. Maybe start off by dropping in on Aunt Bee for free, sugar-free fudgies, then run up the coast highway to Washington and the Alaska ferry system. Then over to Jasper and your place (when, about, is dinner set out, anyway?) Then, down through Glacier and the canyons of Utah before swinging back to Texas.

It's quite an ambition, but with kit doing most of the hard stuff like picking the music, eating, napping, eating, swimming, eating,......., I know we can make it. I'll let everybody know before head out, in plenty of time to stock up at the grocery. (Man, we just gotta get to Carol's one of these days - just the thought of wichity grubs and wallaby stew sets my mouth to watering!)

-- Wiley E Lon (lgal@exp.net), April 23, 2004.

Beep! Beep!

(Still think it's a wolf .....)

...

At least you got to see the falls in Yosemite. When we went through, it was so dry .... (Crowd replies, "How dry was it?")

It was so dry that the falls had shriveled up and the water was flowwing uphill.....

-- Robert & Jean (getingwarmer@ga.inthespring), April 23, 2004.

Ain't no wolf.

Don't you see how he's got his rear end all jacked up like. That's from ACME high rise springs. And his ears are not quite straight. That's from wearing the ACME roadrunner radar guidance helment. But, most of all, see that goofy look on his face? Just imagine the ground falling out from under him, levitation for a moment, whipping out a sign reading "UH-OH!" and then falling 1000 feet to the desert below where a tiny poof of dust rises. I'm telling you, it's a coyote!

-- Jungle Lon, the "ACME" animal answer man (lgal@exp.net), April 23, 2004.

How lovely to see everyone popping in. Beautiful photos Gayla. You sure know how to do justice to that stunning scenery.

Tricia, if you've changed jobs, I hope you still get to enjoy your short but lovely summer weather when it gets there.

As for the great coyote/wolf debate, maybe it's a dingo on holiday.

Don't worry Lon, I've found my recipe for Cajun style croc., just in case you drop by unexpected. Course if you stop by Aunt Bee's, you may never want to leave judging from the way she likes to cook.

-- Carol (c@oz.com), April 24, 2004.

That ain't no dingdong, dindatgone, dingbat, or dinged bat.

(Ain't got no lumps or bumps on it!)

I'a a tellin' ya its way too well-fed to be a coyote, 'cause he never caught the roadrunner.

-- Robert & Jean (getingwarmer@ga.inthespring), April 24, 2004.

Great pic's. I wanna go (to Yosemite, not San Fran).

Gotta go with scruffy ol Lon on the great dog debate. Not seein' him in-the-flesh for size makes it a little harder, but it's usually better to go with your first impression, and the coloration, posture, proportion and face say coyote to me. I haven't hunted Wyo. for awhile, but see 'em around up there, sometimes alone, sometimes a few together. They come in all colors nowadays, maybe inbred with feral dogs or something, but that tawny yellow predominates. One I saw a couple of years running was almost black. Coyotes are adaptable and range over much of the country. They came around Daddy's place regularly in that dusty North Central Texas country south of Wichita Falls. They'll take your house cat right off the porch. You don't see them in broad daylight much like the ones off the beaten path in the far reaches. Last one I saw in that part of the country was just a little guy. It had been uncommonly wet, and the Johnson grass grew tall on either side of the dirt road Daddy lived on; I stopped to watch a covey with young quail follow each other across the road, then this little coyote pup came out looking after them but shy to cross the open space. He wasn't bold enough to continue and after swapping ends indecisively a couple of times, ducked back into the weeds on his own side, and I went on by.

As I say, haven't hunted Wyoming for awhile, but tried and didn't draw a license last year (just as well, not sure I could've taken the beating after a knee operation). What's that got to do with wolves? As I was calling ranchers up there to see who might remember me, one of 'em said that the aftermath of the wolf transplantation project had now generated some rather large packs, and one had been seen some 90 miles to the north of the places I usually haunt, er, hunt. Having lived for years in the 'burbs, it won't exactly count as up-to-date info, but the only time I ever heard wolves in the wild was in an area called "the Glade" in the San Juans of Southwestern Colorado back in the 1960's when I was just a gangling pup myself. Memorable sound, that.

Seeing a coyote or any other kind of primarily nocturnal varmint posing for you or trying to approach like that in broad daylight would, in Texas, be cause to suspect a rabid animal. Maybe in the park they've gotten used to people. Like whitetail deer and raccoons, coyotes are very adaptable.

As for Redneck's dogs under the porch, they eat better than me! Otherwise your description fits, Robert. Reminds me of a business meeting years ago. I forget the exact subject matter, but I remember pointing out that something depended on whose porch that particular mean dog was living under. The room went silent, and then everybody busted out laughing. (I won the point, but vowed to spend less time in company with Redneck!)

-- J&R (howlin@the.tourists), April 24, 2004.

We are talkin' about the Road Runner and the Coyote-disgised-a-wolf...

We ARE NOT talkin' about Yosemite SanFran!

Now, stop confuscioousing me.....

-- Robert & Jean (getingwarmer@ga.inthespring), April 24, 2004.

BACK OFF, varmint!

(Thufferin Thuccatathsch!)

-- J&R (jsnider@hal-pc.org), April 25, 2004.

Now weight a minute!

The coyote neer ate greens with is roadrunner stew!

Where did this succitash come from?

-- Robert & Jean (getingwarmer@ga.inthespring), April 25, 2004.

Does Yosemite SanFran wear pink booties?

-- Robert & Jean (getingwarmer@ga.inthespring), April 25, 2004.

And the answer is: COYOTE!

Sorry Robert and Tricia, but according to the National Park Service in Yosemite, that's a coyote. :-)

Wiley E. Lon and J are probably correct: he's well fed from visitors. They ask you NOT to feed the wildlife, but unfortunately, people don't listen.

Robert, I've been to Yosemite when the falls were barely a trickle, but I've never seen them flow uphill! LOL

Lon, I sure hope this IS the year you get a well-deserved vacation!!! (I'm really glad you don't hate my guts.) ;-)

Rob, happy to hear you are almost free. I'm looking forward to MORE STORIES! I hope you can visit Yosemite again, too!

Thanks for the kind words, Carol. I hope some day to make it down your way although I'll pass on the Cajun-style croc. YIKES!

J, I hope your knee has healed well and you're able to take another trip soon. Getting away from the 'regular grind' is such a nice treat. :-)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), April 26, 2004.

Thanks Gayla. Yep, I'll be free as of this weekend---at least for a couple of months (or hopefully a bit more) until the next assignment.

More stories? You want more stories? Hmmm. No one else 'round here has shown any interest at all in that this year but I guess I can start to think of one. Maybe a story featuring Dr. Gold and a, ummmm, lettuce sea, uh... how about a coyote ;-)

-- (sonofdust@free.soon), April 26, 2004.

Now, "how" did the National Park Service decide it was a coyote?

Did they go ask it?

Get third party verification? Aaffitdavids?

Check it's liar for roadrunner left-overs? Look for Acme parties and pieces?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmn?

"I" don't think its a coyote.....

-- Robert & Jean (getingwarmer@ga.inthespring), April 26, 2004.

Great pics Gayla! Sounds like you had a spectacular time. I'll bet you got in a lot of hiking too. Ok, I'm jealous!

-- Aunt Bee (Aunt__Bee@hotmail.com), May 16, 2004.

Bee bumped!

-- Robert & Jean (getingwarmer@ga.inthespring), May 17, 2004.