Still Sequoia, with a glimpse of Kings Canyon

We were all very hungry by this point.  It was past lunchtime west coast time, which means our bodies were thinking we missed lunch completely and were asking for dinner.  Thankfully, there was a lodge on the way to our next point of interest, so we stopped to eat.

Luckily, we were there during the three hours that the lodge restaurant was open for lunch.  I don't think I've ever had a quick meal at a hotel/lodge/resort restaurant, and this was no exception.  That's okay.  I was just glad we found food!

Think they are getting tired of me taking pictures?  My smartass husband is showcasing his bottle of malt vinegar like a catalog model.  

We headed on down the road and stopped at an overlook where you could see King's Canyon in the distance.  

At this point, we realized that even though we were crossing into King's Canyon National Park several times on the twisting road, there was no way we were going to make it to the actual canyon before dark.  Time to cross that off our list.

Our next stop was to see the General Grant tree.  There was an impressive grove you walked through to get to it.

Plus a downed tree that has been there for hundreds of years, completely intact.

There were pictures of gold miners camping in the trunk and of cavalry soldiers using it like a barn for their horses.  It's been there awhile.

We walked the rest of the path to the Grant tree.

Daniel will still randomly state how many ping pong balls the Grant Tree could hold or any other factoid you can think of.  That kid loves numbers.

Our last stop in the park was another overlook.  The views were simply gorgeous.

We headed back toward Fresno and made plans to meet one of my friends that lives in California for dinner.  I suggested In-N-Out Burger, since virtually everyone that has ever been to or lived in California said we need to eat there.

I got the Double Double.  It seemed to be the most popular, so why not?

Heidi managed to find us, even after sticking it out through a traffic jam that added an extra 45 minutes onto her 2 hour drive over.  Almost 3 hours in a car just to see me?  That's a friend. 

We enjoyed the meal and the company before we headed back to our hotel to crash and sleep.  What a day!

The trees. The TREES!

We continued our drive through the park, coming to a grove of giant sequoias, so we stopped.

I kept trying to get a picture that would show some kind of perspective on how huge these beauties are, but I don't think I ever really captured it.  I'm not sure it's possible.  They are so big and old and spectacular.

Then we came to the fallen tree that you can drive through.  They try not to disturb the live trees, but since this one was on the ground anyway, why not try to show the size of the trunk?

That's our rental van, with Brad and the boys waving at me while I stood on the side of the road.  You can't really see anyone but Brad, but I swear the kids are in there and waving!  

Our next stop was a meadow.  The parking lot was nearly full, but we found a spot and stashed our snacks in a bear locker.  After hearing the rangers talk, we weren't willing to risk our rental for a bag of trail mix and some cookies.  All the campgrounds and parking lots have bear lockers for you to store any food you have with you inside.  The damage that a bear can do to a car trying to get a quick bite to eat is amazing.

This is what I've always pictured a meadow to be.  I don't think I've ever really seen one that matched the picture in my head.

The four of us were walking along the path and there was a solo hiker following us.  No big deal, until he kept stopping when and where we stopped.  He had a backpack and all the gear.  Probably just keeping pace with us for some reason that had nothing to do with anything bad, but it made the warning bells go off in my head.  I told Brad we needed to backtrack because I wanted to take a picture of the uprooted tree (above) and when we did the guy just stayed there on the trail.  I had heard voices in the distance, so I knew if we went back toward the parking lot, we were headed toward people.  There was a herd of at least 12 people, looked like 2 or 3 families traveling together, that we met on the trail back.  Once they were in front of us, we turned and headed back in to finish the trail.  As much as I would have preferred the peace and quiet of being far in front of the group, I figured it was better to be just-in-case safe.  It was probably nothing, but when my spidey sense tingles, I feel better when I respond to it.

Next up was the Giant Forest Museum.  The parking lot is across the street, or there is a shuttle stop right next to the building.  The shuttle system looked to be a very efficient way to see the highlights of the park.

We crossed the street and found the Sentinel tree.

Then we spent some time learning all about the park in the museum.  I thought the wheel of chance, that showed the odds of a giant sequoia germinating and surviving, was a good visual.  The boys stood there spinning it for several minutes and never got a "winning" hit for a sequoia to grow.

We walked the path to the Sherman tree.

I have to say that while the ancient sequoias are impressive in size, not to mention the fact that they have survived thousands of years, they aren't particularly pretty.  The mature sequoias have an almost regal look to them.  Majestic is the word that kept coming to mind.  The ancient ones were gnarled, with less green on them.  It makes sense.  Nature is a bitch.  

Does "sequoia" mean "puke"?

Friday, June 26th -


I know I've introduced him before, but meet the Bed Hog:

You will notice that Daniel is sleeping diagonally across the bed and Joshua is curled up in a ball.  Nobody wants to share a bed with Daniel.  Bless his heart.  

We were up early, since our body clocks were still on east coast time, and we were on the road about sunrise.

It was about a 2 hour drive from Dinuba to Sequoia National Park, but we enjoyed the change of scenery.

Lots of fruit and nut orchards, crops, and oil wells.  Not the landscape we are used to!

We stopped in the last town I saw on the map before the climb up into the mountains that would take us to the entrance of the park.  It was Wood... something.  Woodlake, Woodlawn?  I'm not 100% sure and I'm not in the mood to go find out.  Anyway, it was a very small town and our choices for breakfast were limited.  Very limited.  Like, do you want McDonalds or do you want the gas station, limited.  I guess McDonalds it is.  

We don't really eat much at the fast food places anymore, but I do have fond memories of their breakfast burrito, so I ordered one of those and a hash brown for my meal.  When they gave us our tray, I asked for mild sauce.  The woman looked at me blankly.  She said, "You mean the picante sauce?"  I replied, "Yes."  She handed me a couple packets of hot picante sauce.  I said, "You don't have mild?"  She gave me the look again.   "That's picante sauce.  That's all we have."

Mmm-kay.  I'm obviously in a part of the country that doesn't do mild.  It's not that the hot picante is really "hot", I just like the flavor of the mild better.  To prove I'm not crazy, I looked it up:

Yep.  McDonalds still has both.  Obviously not in Wood... whatever, California, but they do have it.  So there.  

Once we had food in our tummies, we climbed back in the van and started the drive up.

And up.

And up!  At least this sign let us know we were headed the right way.  There were so few cars I was beginning to wonder.

When we spotted the river, I figured we were close.

And I was right.

Yay!

We showed our annual national park pass and they gave us a daily sticker to put on our windshield and we were in.  First stop?  Photo op.

Never, ever miss a photo op.  Ever.  We were lucky that there was a family there at the same time, so we handed off phones to each other for group pictures.  I'm rarely in pictures because I'm usually the one taking them.

We headed in the park and up the mountains.

See that dome shaped rock up there?  That's Moro Rock.  The sign says so.  We were about halfway up the twisting, climbing road when we stopped for these pictures.

Yeah, I played with the panoramic scan option on my camera.  Why not?

It was here that I saw my first car sick people.  Two of them hurling over the wall.  It would not be the last.  Remember I said we were only about halfway up the twisting, climbing road?  It got worse.  A lot worse.

We climbed and climbed, making our way around stopped cars with sick people, until finally we rounded a corner and:

I gasped out loud!  Pictures don't do it justice.  These trees?  Oh, my.  So fabulous, so beautiful, and so HUGE.  We stopped.  Because photo op.

It was about this time that I began to wonder if "sequoia" was Native American for "puke".  I have never seen so many people sick along one stretch of road in my life.  I felt so sorry for all of them because no matter what, they had to face the drive back down the mountain one way or another.  But back to the beauty of nature...

We finished the drive to the top and the first stop was Moro Rock.  Remember that dome shaped rock waaaayyyy up in that earlier picture?  There is a trail to walk on it.

Now would probably be a good time to mention my fear of heights.  And that Joshua inherited that fear.  It's not just an "I don't like it" thing.  It's an "it terrifies me" thing.  Just wanted to toss that out there before we start the climb up the trail.  

See Brad up there with both arms flung out?  Happy as a damn clam.  See Joshua up there, clinging to the rail on the opposite side from the dropoff?  He's not happy as a clam.  Obviously.

It was a beautiful view.  Really worth the climb.

There was a ranger on the top of the rock, giving a talk about how the mountain range was formed, and how it continues to grow.  Yes, it is still getting taller.  He used those 2 paper plates to show how the geological plates are still pushing into each other, forcing them upward. 

Joshua's only comment, "How can he lean on the rail like that!"  I wondered the same thing myself.

We made it this far, but when Joshua saw the trail leading around the top of the rock (pictured below), he freaked out.  I mean, seriously freaked.  I wasn't sure he was going to be able to move.  We sat there for a few minutes and I got him to drink some water.  Eventually he was able to go back down the way we came.  I handed off the camera to Brad and told him he could finish the trail without us.

We walked back down and Brad was only about 10 minutes behind us.  We climbed back in the van, turned the a/c on full blast, and headed down the road for our next stop.