Sequoia National Park

After climbing up over 6000 feet from the heat of inland, agricultural California we arrived into the lush forests of Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park. If you love trees, (and Karen does) this is your place.

We decided soon after arriving, even though we were scheduled to dry-camp (without water, power or sewer hook-ups) for the next 4 days, that we’d like to spend an extra day at Princess camground.  After chasing down a payphone we made the arrangements to push Yosemite dates forward and book another night.

The next day, we headed into Sequoia National Park to hike amongst the giant sequoias.  It has the largest Sequoia groves with the largest Sequoia trees in the world.  Each one of these trees can grow for almost 3000 years.  It was tragic to see the logging that killed many of these trees in the span of 10s of years.  Luckily, the forest is now protected and these trees can stick around.

The largest tree in the world (amount of wood) is the General Sherman Tree and it IS impressive.

Even though G didn’t seem to be up for a hike that day, she was still as cute as ever.

We decided on another hike, ¼ mile this time, but 400 steps up to Moro Rock, a granite dome with views of both sides of the great western divide.  We were thrilled when we got there.

Then we took a leisurely stroll through Crescent Meadow,

 

where we got up an close and personal understanding of the enormity of these trees

We were looking for bears, but found more trees and deer.

Temps ranged from x in the day to 30 at night.  Georgia woke up in her bunk each night cold and ended up sleeping with us until the morning

The next day, we went to Kings Canyon.  This was an awe-inspiring view of these impressive mountains. 

Being father’s day, Tim went off on a meadow hike alone to get some much deserved alone time.

While Karen did something G was much more interested in, splashing in the river.

This was also Tim's birthday weekend and Father's Day, so we enjoyed celebrating the best father in the world!