The panorama upon entering Yosemite Valley is likely one of the most incredible views in the country. You are greeted by towering shards of granite worn smooth by rivers of time and ice, polished and gleaming in the sun, with gushing torrents of water falling to the lush meadows at their feet.
Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in North America, cascades for 2,425 feet. That’s more than 1,000 feet higher than the Empire State Building!
You can feel the power of the falls even from a great distance.
I took a hike up into the foothills of the canyon early in the morning, with the hopes of seeing some wildlife along the way (sunrise and sunset tend to be the times when animals are most active). I had heard that both mountain lions and bobcats were sometimes seen in the valley, and one of my long time dreams had always been to see one of either in the wild (although mountain lions especially are also terrifying, so it’s a bit of an ambivalent goal).
As the morning light broke across the gleaming cliffs, I decided to draw and then head back, not having seen any wildlife.
It was now almost noon on my hike back, and the trail had gotten much more crowded, so I assumed any chance of animals was long gone. But just up ahead of me, I saw a couple pointing excitedly into the rocks just off the trail. I scurried over and the slinking shape of a bobcat emerged from the shadows.
I frantically pulled out both my camera and drawing supplies.
The camera resulted in this Bigfoot-like image.
And the drawing supplies resulted in this. I feel like drawing is often a wonderful way to capture wildlife, because your memory can fill in even after the animal has disappeared from view. The bobcat walked leisurely past me and faded into the rocks, but I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day.
I kept texting my husband, Chris, about how excited I was and how I felt like I deserved some kind of medal for seeing a bobcat. So when I got home from my trip, he had made me this:
He said he didn’t put “Best Bobcat Spotter” because technically, the couple that pointed it out first were better, which I think is fair.