Sequoia National Park

This morning we left Lemoore for the Sequoia National Park, the home of the largest grove of giant trees in the world. The redwoods in northern California are the tallest, but the Sequoias are the most massive. The ride to Sequoia was a breathtaking climb up the Sierra mountains, including some rather scary one lane roads, due to construction. They were building barriers and supports on the outside lanes, so we figured we would just have to suffer for the sake of the future generations! Maybe our kids won't be scared to death when they travel up here!

Once we entered the park and parked, the first sign we saw in the parking lot read, "Active Bear Area." Immediately, I thought of my sister Connie, who has a deep-seated fear of the creatures, stemming from my family's visit to Yellowstone in 1966. No, Connie would not have left the car. We actually never saw a bear in Sequoia National Park, but we did see one later in Yosemite. The people in the tram that passed us on our tour had just seen one, but we missed it. I did take a photo of a bear photo that was on the bus dashboard, and I zoomed in to make it really look authentic. I admit I had a little fun with sister Connie with that later on. Once people on the bus saw how my picture turned out, they all tried it.

The pleasant lady tram driver said she saw bears every day, and she had never seen them behave aggressively. All the trash cans here have a special feature on them that makes it difficult for bears to get to the trash (and for humans to throw it away.) We saw the tree that people used to drive through, but it collapsed several years ago. There is one on its side that has a tunnel that small cars were driving through. This is an amazing place, and the size of these trees makes you stand still with wonder. Surely, one feels closer to the creator when faced with such tremendous works of his hand.

The hike to General Sherman, the largest living thing in the world, was not too bad because it was downhill, but the path was dotted with warning signs about the fact that you have to come back up. On a cool, fall day, this might not be too bad, if you get here before the snows, but we visited on July 31, when it was 95 degrees. We were above 7,000 feet throughout the park, so breathing was a little difficult to begin with. Betty Jo and I paced ourselves and rested every now and then, well, we may have rested many nows and thens, but we made it back to the parking lot not too far behind Kristee and Jane, who saw the hike as a challenge. I would do it again, just to see that magnificent tree, but I would prefer doing it on a cooler day. It took two pictures to get the whole tree because I couldn't back up enough to take the whole thing in. It was truly amazing. I just wished it had another name; being from the South, General Sherman isn't exactly one of my heroes. I suppose he gets the last laugh, because General Sherman still has a way of bringing some southerners (and northerners) to their knees, just like he did to Georgia.

We then drove just a few miles to King's Canyon National Park, just to say we went there. It is the home of General Grant, the third largest tree in the world. Jane was driving this day, and she brought us out of the parks through a pass, which I believe was carved from the side of the mountain by some very drunk Indians, mountain men, or Virginia Tech engineers. Kristee refused to look out of her window, but Betty Jo and I loved looking over these steep, steep, drops as Jane brought us careening down the mountain road. No male could have done better; in fact, all three of us became rather adept at mountain driving during this trip. Once we reached the valley, we were once again treated to beautiful orchards, this time of orange and tangerine trees, all of them lovely to behold. We headed towards Yosemite, staying in Fresno that night. Another glorious day! Thank God, John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt, et. al. for our National Parks!