On the way over, we stopped by an Austrian Cafe that had really good pastries. Their breakfast special included crepes with berries, cream and almonds. I think it was called the Pastry Cafe; it is close to Davis, or possibly in Davis.
When we arrived at the visitor center of Taylor Creek, a family of bears greeted us in the parking lot. The mother bear was walking through the visitor center area, with two brown baby bears and a black baby bear bumbling behind her. Rangers surrounded the bears, instructing people to stand back. I had always read that mother bears are very aggressive, but this one seemed to be a bit more accustomed to human presence. The Rangers were like her private secret service, telling all the humans to stand back and clearing any path that they imagined the bears might head to. The baby bears were not so well behaved. Instead of following their mother closely, they would take breaks and stray. One would climb up a tree for no particular reason, and then climb down. Another almost wandered farther into the parking lot, to investigate a barking dog. The three babies were large, probably around 8 months old. The ranger said that baby bears stay with their mothers until they are about 18 months old.
As we walked down the trail, we saw a few red bellied salmon in the stream. These were the ones who had gotten a head start on their migration. Good for them, since the river was less crowded. There were pockets of still water where the fish would rest, before getting their act together and swimming against the current, wiggling their way up stream. They climbed up the river this way. I wonder if salmon have any sort of buddy system for migration.
The same bear family made their way to the trail, causing a commotion as everyone dove forward to take pictures. As they left, I followed, hoping to get better pictures. At one point however, two of the baby bears had veered off the path. By the time I realized that, I was standing in between the mother and two of her babies, something you are never supposed to do. Luckily though, the ranger secret service were there. "Move away!" They instructed.
"Where?" I asked, though keeping my voice quiet so as not to startle the bears. There was no where for me to move--towards the back was the mother, towards the front were the two cubs. The mother seemed to be doing her own thing by the river, and the two cubs were climbing yet another tree.
The ranger then took out his whistle and started to blow it really loudly. The Cubs darted out of the tree and scampered back towards their mom.
From there, the bear family went for a swim. The mother walked through the river to get to the other side, while the Cubs jumped in to play. They rolled and wrestled in the water, before jumping out on the other side and shaking off the water like a dog would.
The rest of the hike was very nice too. Before we left, we saw the bears again in the parking lot. The Cubs put their paws on a truck before running off to who knows where. The mother, walking behind them, stood up on her hind legs to try to see where her naughty kids had run off to.
It was a 3.5 hour drive each way, but worth it.
