Sequoias

After a fun, brief day at Yosemite, we traveled further south and east to visit the Sequoia National Park in California.  We got off at a good time that morning, hit up a grocery store and gas station, then headed to the park.  On the way in we saw gas for over $4 a gallon.  What???  I feel for you Californians living out in the country!

When we initially drove into the park we didn't see any giant trees, but did after driving for a little while.  Our main stops for the day were to see the General Sherman tree, hike up Moro Rock, and go through the Tunnel Log. The trees were so huge it was mind blowing.


Big trees have big pinecones!












We hiked down to the General Sherman tree for a family photo, then continued on the trail for a little hike on Congress Trail. General Sherman is the largest tree in the world.  So cool!










There were a few fun places for the kids to explore and climb around.  And thankfully this park wasn't as busy as Yosemite.




The trees are curved in because of the photo option we did.
















It's better to just go in person, but see how huge they are?!








Next up was Moro Rock. Lee's nephew Aaron actually told us about this, and I'm glad he did.  It was a fun, short, thrilling hike! Here is a picture from the sign at the parking lot.  This photo is from the early 1900s I believe.


Hmmm...quite safe, right?




The hike was short, as I mentioned, but very steep.  Thankfully it's all paved and whatnot with handrails everywhere.  The views from the top were amazing.










We went all the way to the end!








On our way to the campsite we saw a great view from down below of Moro Rock.


Next stop was easy....driving through the Tunnel Log.  I wasn't sure if the Chevy would fit, but it did!






We were able to camp in the park at Potwisha Campground. Down below our campsite was a river with lots of rocks.  We were at the campground about 5:30/6:00, so we had plenty of time to set up camp and play.  The kids had a blast down there. 


Elden was jumping rocks and accidentally fell in.  After that all the kids wanted to get wet.


Lee and a couple of the boys were doing rock jumping contests and I couldn't really look.  I was thinking about broken bones and how we were hundreds of miles from a regular hospital.  Everyone made it out alive!  Though maybe we should have been more concerned about the bears.  There were bear boxes at each campsite.  We had to put all food and smelly things, like lotion, in the bear box.  Kind of annoying....  And again, no fire that night because it was so dry.






A lava tree.  Just kidding. But it looks like the tree melted over these rocks! 


The kids pulled out a game to play.  Hard to beat playing games at night by the light of a lantern!  Hopefully they have fond memories of this trip.  One good thing about camping for Lee and I is that we actually go to bed at a decent hour, ha ha.  I think we were all asleep by 10:30 or so.  Usually, sadly, Lee and I stay up much later.  I really need to work on that!


Overall it was a nice day and I was really glad about the evening downtime.  Oh, and we got ice cream cones at this park, since we missed out in Yosemite.  Yum!