11-21-11 Changing Plans

So yesterday I went to youtube and looked at videos of people that had gone camping in Yellowstone.  

Yellowstone in July is crowded with humans, bears are at their most protective of their young, and it turns out Yellowstone is prairie.  Now why I didn't glom onto that fact while researching and looking at pictures of bison, is beyond me. 

I don't like prairies.

I don't like crowds.

AND I AM TERRIFIED OF BEARS.

There were videos of campers setting up their tent camps and then turning on their ipod bose powered heavy rock music.  What???  The don't seem to realize how far noise carries in the woods.  And they showed how close all their neighbors were.  Ick.

Did I mention there were bears?  

These idiots are having a grand old time with a bear attacking their car!  The bear just comes up to it, with no provocation (like a furiously barking dog) and pounds on the windows and mouths the outside mirrors.  And the family just sits there.  JUST SITS THERE LAUGHING.  Holy crap!  

I would have run over that bear so damn fast.  People, Bears Eat People.  I am a person.  I don't EVER want to meet another bear.  When I lived out in the woods on the Olympic Penninsula, I would occasionally see a bear from my kitchen window.  I always grabbed my rifle and waited to see if the bear would require action on my part.  

Now those were just little old black bears, and I was living in their woods.  I got that.  And they never really paid any attention to me.  Or came too close.

Yellowstone has Grizzly Bears.  Nope.  Not gonna go.

Need to rethink this plan.  

There are books by Ansel about Rainier and the Cascades.  Much closer, in rescuing distance if the trailer goes wonky, and I can take the dog easily.

AND NO GRIZZLY BEARS.

And not so many people.  And, most importantly of all, I love the topography here.  I love huge mountains, rushing water, Puget Sound and it is all safe to touch.

In Yellowstone, there may be volcanic crap, but you can't touch it.  They have poisonous water, boiling water, rattlesnakes, scorpions, hot earth, bears and huge animals that are scary to be so close to.  

I am staying closer to home.  I will adapt this adventure accordingly.  Perhaps learning about Emerson, Muir and reading Ansel's books on how to take pictures will develop into a great idea on its own.  And continue his work using his ideas out here..............something to think about.