We drove the winding gravel road up to Saddlebag Lake in the Inyo National Forest to look for pikas. These little creatures are lagomorphs, related to the rabbit. They live in loose rock piles, or talus slopes, and use a high-pitched call to communicate. They're wonderful to watch -- bounding from rock to rock, collecting long grasses until their mouths are absolutely stuffed. Then they pile the grass in the sun, forming little haystacks. Pikas don't hibernate, so they eat this dried grass during the winter, when the rock pile lies under many feet of snow. In the Sierra Nevadas, they live at 9,000 to 10,000 feet.




There's something almost zen about waiting for pikas. They're incredibly difficult to spot unless they're moving. So you must stare at the rock pile, searching for any hint of movement. Sometimes you can hear their calls of "peeeeek" letting you know they're in there somewhere. You stare at the rock until you become the rock. And then you see them.



This afternoon, we weren't disappointed. A lone pika appeared, bounding across the rocks. He vanished soon after. We stayed in this amazing spot, taking in the snowy peaks around us.



Toward sunset, we drove into Yosemite Valley, past the rushing whitewater of the Merced River. The granite edifices of El Capitan, The Three Brothers, and Half Dome towered over us. We stopped at the Ahwahnee Hotel after dinner. Built in the 1920s, the Ahwahnee is very much one of those grand National Park hotels from the earlier part of the last century.



My personal favorite thing about the Ahwahnee is the phenomenal watercolor paintings of Gunnar Widforss, a Swedish artist who painted many western parks of the U.S. in the early part of the century. His stunning paintings of redwoods, Vernal Falls, Yosemite Falls, and scenic vistas of El Capitan and Half Dome capture an almost photorealistic view of these magnificent places. Widforss painted numerous views of the park in the 1920s before eventually moving to the Grand Canyon, where he painted and lived until his unexpected death at a young age. Many of his originals hang in the Ahwahnee lobby and great rooms.

And what great rooms they are -- huge, high ceilinged, with medieval-looking chandeliers and stained glass windows. A tapestry hangs in the Mural Room, depicting a forest scene of bears, rabbits, and deer. After meandering through the palatial place, taking in the paintings, we returned to our campsite in the Inyo National Forest, and to another night of vivid, glittering stars.