Pushing past a hill and a bear

Sometimes the best things to see are the most challenging.

Rumor and the news had been trumpeting well before we left on our impulsive adventure, that the National Parks were mobbed in 2021 because of the pent up wanderlust produced by lockdown and the borders of the USA still being closed to international travel. 

We saw evidence of this: more RVs than ever on the roads, tough competition for first-come, first serve campsites, and difficulty getting advance reservations at popular parks. 

Mike and I were just a couple more lemmings in a camper, pitching ourselves over the cliff of crowds in search of a COVID-restricted experience in nature. 

Even so, other than being driven hither and yon fleeing fires and smoke, we were having pretty good luck actually getting into the places we arrived at with nothing but crossed fingers. It helped that Mike had the iron constitution necessary to lurk around waiting for campsites to open up in the morning, and the agile maneuvering to park our trailer in sites technically too small. Mike deserves full credit …