As we get along toward mid-summer, the most likely places to find Yosemite’s black bears are foraging in or near meadows for roots, shoots and fresh leaves of plants that grow there or in nearby forests where they use their excellent noses to sniff out ant and termite nests in fallen logs.

Having seen on particular bear several times near the same place, this morning, feeling lucky, I stopped the van to scan a meadow where we usually stop in the afternoons. And there WAS a bear there, foraging on the plant material near the meadow margin!

After lunch, heading back from Glacier Point, there was a “bear jam” of cars near another meadow. But we got some good views of it sniffing nearby logs for insect inhabitants. My two teenage guests from Switzerland were especially pleased to have seen real, live bears from a safe distance.