Grizzlies in Yosemite? not recently...

The real hazard for Easterners traveling to the West is that once you experience the area (and Yosemite is just the tip of the iceberg), you will never go back east. That is what happened to me years ago.

Once you have cut your teeth on Yosemite, you can try some really nice, relatively secluded areas like the Gila Wilderness, Bob Marshall, or similar..