Dan's California Picture Tour, Continued

Yours truly jumping off of party rock with hat in hand, and, which can't be detected in just a photograph, shrieking like a little girl.

This is Kristen on our hike up to Mist Falls. We had heard from a group coming back down that we should be careful because a bear was at the top of the falls when they were there. So, naturally, I was really hoping to get there in time to see the bear.

Unfortunately, the bear was gone by the time we got there. So Kristen's brother and sister-in-law and I swam around at the falls. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. The scenery was awesome, and the water was cold enough that you numbed up quickly and could then just enjoy the swim. It was nice because nobody else showed up for a long time.

This is me doing my "I pity the fool who don't eat my smores" pose. I was trying to devise a way to not only toast my marshmallow, but to also melt my chocolate. I tried just heating up a whole smore over the fire, but it just burned my graham cracker and turned it all mushy. Ultimately, I just had to heat the whole smore over the propane lantern, which worked pretty well. Does anybody else have any good smore making tips that get the chocolate melted? By the way, we put peanut butter on the smores, and they tasted really good.

This is the rattlesnake we saw on our hike back from Mist Falls. The whole week long I was hoping to see a bear. A bear came during the night at least two nights during the week and made a ruckus in neighboring campsites, but it never came to our campsite. I stayed up late and alone one night, smeared with honey, hoping to catch the bear on the prowl, but it didn't come, and I ended up just going to bed. So I didn't get to see a bear. Thus, the coolest picture of fauna from Kings Canyon that I can post is of this rattlesnake. But Kristen did a see a bear on her way to the restroom in the middle of the night, so you can ask her about that. Just kidding about the honey.