Sequoia National Park Day 4

Today we took a vote in the car on the way down to the village. It was unanimous, 4-0 that we like King's Canyon more. That said, there was plenty to do in Sequoia National Park. 

Our main adventure was to ride out the shuttle road. This one takes you to Moro Rock first. This is a massive rock that overlooks the entire area 360 degrees around you. Seth counted nearly 500 steps, and that didn't count the incline between stairs. Still, it was a short, but very busy hike.

We saw some beautiful bucks on our way to Moro Rock.

We are climbing to the top of the rock and it is mostly stairs.

Lovely views. Wish there was no smoke.

We felt accomplished!

We hopped in the car determined to beat all the crowd to the drive-through tree. Luckily when we arrived, no one was there. Dax was elated, because he got to drive through the tree as well. We also made several other stops, including the massive overturned stump, and Parker Grove. At Parker Grove, we even stood right in the middle of three massive sequoias growing close together. 

We stood under the tree. 

We all got to drive through the tree (except Seth). This is Dax coming through!

Then we walked on top, too!

At the end of the road we came to Crescent Meadows. We were really keen to see a bear, and this seemed like an amazing hike for it. We walked around the meadow for around 2 miles, passing a ton of sequoias. There was a tree shaped like a chimney that was burned up, and you could look out the top. The was a fallen tree that someone had turned into a little house. There was even a large crescent-shaped meadow, but there was no bear, so we went back to the room.

We finally saw a doe on our walk.

It was a lovely trail.

There were lots of large trees along the meadows.

We had such a nice time exploring.

More lovely flowers.

Dax is a good hike leader.

There was one tree you could walk in and look up. 

Our marmot friend.

The Parker Group 

It is so fun to walk among the giant trees.

We also stopped by this giant tree that had fallen down.

After lunch, Dax and Dad took a much needed nap, and Mom and Seth watched a movie. The afternoon was slipping away, but we were tired and grumpy. Eventually, Mom found a hike, but it was 3 miles, and that seemed like a lot. The boys were pretty grumpy about it, and we tried to shorten the loop with a few shortcuts, but the meadow was too boggy. Finally, we just started our way around. 

The bugs were biting, and we walked the first quarter mile up the hill and around the parking lot. At a third of a mile we were about 100 yards from the van. It was pretty frustrating, but we did have a nice creek crossing. Dad was trying to distract the boys with conversations about our favorite and least favorite national parks, when Dax finally spotted that bear. It was up ahead of us in the meadow, and it knew there was a problem. It stood up on its hind feet and sniffed, trying to sense what was wrong. We watched for a few minutes, and then he dropped down on all fours and walked toward the trail in front of us. 

The little stream crossing.

Mom is still taking pictures of all the flowers. 

The bear standing up. Mom forgot her big camera on this trip. 😭

We got a good look at him in the meadow.

We were so excited! 

We decided to take a vote whether we wanted to continue along the loop, or turn around and retreat. We were almost halfway, and it was about a mile back to the car. The vote turned out 3-1, with only Mom wanting to push on. 

We were on a high, so we stopped for ice cream back at the village. That went so well that we decided to just grab dinner at the grill. Then we headed back to the room for a little rest. 

Mom loves her ice cream.

Around 7:30, we decided to do one last hike to Sunset Rock. Along the way we say 4 gorgeous bucks still in the velvet. We've seen a lot more bucks than does on this trip. The hike was pretty, and we found a beautiful hillside of wild flowers. When we arrived at the rock, we found it to be a massive hill of granite. We found a nice place to sit and talk and only waited about 10 minutes for the sunset, which was perfect.

We saw these deer in the parking lot. 

Then a few more along the trail. 

Look at these flowers!

It was like a pink and white blanket.

Mom loved these flowers, too!

We are having a good time.

This was a good trail. 

You can see why it is called sunset rock.

We had the best trip.

We really missed Mark!

Seth has grown a million inches this year.

Dax, too! They are both so grown up.

Heading back down the trail with moonlight!

When we got back, we packed the van up. We had an early departure because Mom and Seth had to drop off Dad and Dax at the Fresno Airport. They were headed home for Dax's championship baseball game. Mom and Seth still had a long two-day drive home.

Heading on a plane for a baseball game.

Mom and Seth stopped for the night to hang with the Pooles! 

Sequoia National Park Day 3

Day 3 was our transition day. We packed up the van and drove south toward Sequoia National Park. There was just one more hike called Buena Vista Trail that we wanted to try on the way out. This one hiked up the low rise to the west. It wasn't too steep, and it peaked on the ridge overlooking what seemed like most of California. We could easily see the summer smoky haze all the way to the horizon. One exciting thing was the marmot that we saw, since we've only seen a few mammals.

Mom was in love with all the flowers on this trip.

It was a nice view at the top.

Even with all the smoky haze.

About an hour later we arrived at the main area for Sequoia National Park. We started at the Giant Forest Museum, which is just across the street from our second hike, the Big Loop Trail. This one was interesting, because it wasn't always part of the park. There used to be a bunch of cabins, a lodge, and a store nestled right at the foot of the trees. Then, not too many years ago, some generous folks bought up the area and had it restored to a nice meadow with giant sequoias all around. The problem was that when we finished this hike, we still had 2 hours until our tour of Crystal Cave. 

The museum had some great displays.

We are still amazed at all of these big trees.

This tree is way bigger than Dad!

Having a lot of fun.

Aren't these trees awesome?

This trail was nice and simple.

Does it look like this tree is eating the rock?

We missed Mark, but Dax and Seth were great.

We also made a quick stop at the tree you can drive and walk on. 

We drove around a bit, and then showed up at the cave a little over an hour early for the tour. While Mom put together lunch, Dad asked if we could move our tour time up. We could! We ate quickly and started the hike down to the cave entrance. This hike was almost tropical, and the hike down was one of the nicest in the park (though the hike back up was less fun). Best of all, when we got to the entrance, a spotted owl was sitting right above the arch. It was up and looking at us and very easy to see. It was a really rare, special sighting.

The owl sighting was one of our favorite parts of the trip.

Crystal Cave was really cool. There was a small creek rapidly flowing through the entire cave, and you could hear it rushing along through most of the rooms. This cave is also a marble cave, rather than a limestone cave. That meant a lot of sparkles. The cave formations were really spectacular, too. There was a delicate angel wing, a massive organ, and a dragon head. Our guide was really good, too. We all agreed that Crystal Cave was better than Boyden Cavern. 

The gates to the cave were so cool.

The river was running through the entire cave.

The rooms were huge.

The area by the cave was green and luscious.

Next we took a very long, narrow, twisty road to the park's south entrance. We didn't find a lot down there. There was the Native American entrance sign, a small Visitor Center, and a rock that you used to be able to drive through. Then we drove the very long and winding road back up to the main part of Sequoia. We arrived just in time for pizza at the Pizza Porch, which we loved. (Seriously, we were so excited we cheered!)

Two cool signs at Sequoia. 

Tunnel Rock

You could also walk on top of the rock.

Hooray for pizza.

After checking into our room, we lugged our stuff up the hill and sat for a minute, but not for too long. We still had one more hike to do. This one was a rather long one to the largest tree in the world called General Sherman. We would extend that short hike to three miles by hiking what was called the Congress Trail. This loop had us pass two thick groves of sequoias, one called The House, and the other called The Senate. At the Senate, Dad rounded a massive sequoia and ran face to face into a small white-tailed buck, which was exciting. 

General Sherman

This tree is massive!

We are worn out, but having fun.

He is smiling now, but he was mad we were on this hike.

There were so many cool trees on this trail. 

We saw more cool woodpeckers. 

The trail walked through a tree, too.

The groups of trees were amazing.

Mom loved this hike.

We walked through the Congress and the Senate.

And we spotted this guy!

Almost back to the car.

As we hauled our way up the last stretch of the Congress trail to the parking lot, we heard that a black bear and her cub had been sighted. We hustled our way to the top, but we were too late. They were gone. We were thoroughly exhausted! We barely managed the drive back to the lodging, and the walk seemed even more difficult!