Our friend Susie lives in a log cabin (with a private hanger for her plane) on the road to Yosemite.

She shares the property with a herd of mule deer.

If you are wondering how she got so rich, this cost less than the perfectly ordinary little house she used to own in San Jose. Anyhow, she invited us to park the RV in her driveway and loaned us her convertible to explore Yosemite.

Vroom! Vroom!

So off we went to Yosemite Valley. There are still some forest fires around, so the valley was a bit smokey, but the mountains are still amazing.

We hiked up the Mist Trail, for a view of Vernal Falls, though they only have a trickle of water in them at this time of year.

For lunch we found a picnic table with a fine view of Half Dome.

There are a lot of ravens in the valley at the moment and a couple of them came over to ask if they could share our lunch. One of them joined us at the table while the other perched on a bear box and kept an eye out for rangers. Corvids are smart.

On the way out of the park, we stopped off at one of the redwood groves. The mountain redwoods are a different species from the ones we get on the coast. They are much rarer, and grow bigger, though not quite as tall. It was a long downhill hike to get to Merced Grove, with the promise of uphill going back, so when we made it to the first group we turned around.

I think these are relative youngsters, only a couple of hundred feet tall and maybe only five hundred years old.

The squirrels are getting fat for their winter hibernation. (EDIT: OK, this is a tree squirrel and they don’t hibernate, but the ground squirrels do.)

My juggling friends will be happy to know that squirrels hibernate so deeply that you can juggle them without waking them up.