by Phil Frank

Every year four urbanized black bears make a summer-long visit to Yosemite from San Francisco in Phil Frank's cartoon strip 'Farley,' which appears daily in the San Francisco Chronicle. Known as Bruinhilda, Alphonse, Franklin, and Floyd, the ursine quartet members wreak devious havoc in Yosemite Valley and have become a thorn in the side of the park rangers.

Other Yosemite-related strips feature Velma Melmac (an RV-loving camper from Manteca who abhors dirt), her assistant in a campground cleaning business Lisa Ann, Velma's love interest Rhett, seasonal ranger Farley, Charbeaver (an employee at the Fog City Dumpster), and even former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown.

This collection of nearly 300 hilarious cartoon strips orginally appearing between 1999 and 2004 is the second 'Farley' book to be published by the Yosemite Association.

The first, Fur and Loafing in Yosemite, has proven to be a classic favorite of park visitors and Yosemite lovers.

The book includes a cast of characters, a map of the annual migration route of Ursus corruptus, a wonderful schematic drawing of Velma's Ark-A-Lounger motor home, and an inside view of the bears in camp.

168 pages; 12 inches x 9 inches; illustrated in black and white; paperback; copyright 2006, Yosemite Association

ISBN: 1-930238-21-5. #YOSA1287 paper$13.95