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Day 5 - We left Patty and Fred this morning for our next adventure. It's a short hour and a half drive from their house to the east entrance of Yosemite via Tioga Pass. Being that's it's high tourist season and Saturday, I felt the only chance of getting a campsite would be an early start. Reservations at Yosemite campsites have to made a year in advance but there are several first come first served campgrounds in the upper meadows away from the highly popular valley. As we went up Tioga Pass the kids were very quiet taking it all in. Once inside the park, we began to look for bears. We had many discussions about bears and being that I wanted a peaceful evening, I reassured the boys that bears do not eat little boys. Looking at the map, I found a campground called Yosemite Creek that looked like it was a little bit off the main road. Thinking that the further we got from the highway the better the chance for a campsite, we headed down the winding, single-lane, mostly dirt, very bumpy road. After 20 minutes of very slow going on this remote road, I began to wonder if this was a good idea. We were getting deep into the Yosemite forest and not finding a campground as the map promised. 4.7 miles down that road I went when finally the campground appeared and one of only three available campsites caught our attention. I was relieved to find the campsite and the boys anxious to get out of the car. It turned out to be a great spot. Yosemite is filled with small domes of sloping granite and this spot was no exception. The boys got a kick out of walking up the rocks and we went for a hike from the campsite. I had been a little worried about bears so I told Bodie that whistling, clapping hands, and singing would scare the bears away. I'm pretty sure he did all three simultaneously. Not to mention that he is in general a very loud individual without even trying! We hiked quite a ways when Bodie came upon some small black stuff. Upon further inspection, I determined it was indeed bear poopoo. At that point, Bodie decided we should turn around.
The campground had no water available so in the afternoon I drove back up that dang road to another campground that had water where I could fill up our bottles. Both kids fell asleep so I decided to take a leisurely drive through Tuolumne Meadows. When they awoke we were near Tenaya Lake so we stopped for a little walk but I could not convince the kids to take a swim in the frigid water. We headed back to camp (down that dang narrow bumpy road) and had some Mac n Cheese. The boys wanted to go back up on the rocks and they armed themselves with stick swords and guns. They then played very nicely together shooting random evil creatures and protecting mom from the bears they knew were lurking in the shadows. Then we gathered some wood and I successfully made a large campfire WITHOUT any gas poured on it! After s'mores, we crawled onto our little tent for a peaceful night.
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