King's Canyon & Sequoia

We drove through the HOT valley up to the Sierra Nevadas to King's Canyon. Being a Friday, we again got one of the last (level) sites in the Sunset campground. We hiked to the 3rd largest tree in the world, General Grant, before dinner. The kids went to a junior ranger program by themselves where they gained high recognition for their 40+ Junior Ranger badges. They came back to eat and then went back by to the ranger program on Grizzly bears while Steve and I went to bed.

We awoke the next morning to the loudest campground ever! Really, who shakes Jiffy Pop over a fire at 7am?? There were horns, alarms, screaming, banging.... Needless to say, we are all looking forward to our next camping trip of PRIMITIVE backpacking!

We spent the entire day in King's Canyon and went on my favoritest hike of our trip, a 5 mile trail following King's River on the floor of the canyon. It was so fun and beautiful! I think what made it extra special was the massive raspberry bushes by the river. We gorged on them! The kids also needed to sit in a quiet place for 10 minutes to notice what they see, hear and smell as part of their Junior Ranger activities. So, we picked a spot in the pine forest with the sun shining through the trees onto our skin and meditated for 10 minutes. It was magical! We continued to follow the river back with a toe-dip every now and then. The water was so clear and cool...I just loved it all!

(On the way to King's Canyon, we stopped by Grizzly Falls where Maya threw up from being car sick on the curvy road and Little Dog & I walked right by a rattlesnake!)

We decided to stay another two nights in this campground so that we could explore Sequoia National Park all day Sunday and leave early Monday morning.

So on Sunday morning, we lazed around for awhile before driving to the Giant Sequoia Forest where I accidentally shifted into reverse while driving! In my defense, we have been driving up & down mountain passes for this entire trip and constantly downshifting to save our brakes. So, at one point I thought I was in 2nd and shifting to "drive" but instead I was already in drive and shifted through neutral to reverse...F#@k! There were cars right behind me when I stalled out. With dropped jaws and wide eyes, I put it in "park" and restarted the truck with no problems...whew!! (Sorry, Dad, I swear I've driven the other 3,000 miles in a way that you would be proud of me.) Finally reaching Sequoia NP, the trees were magnificent, but honestly we were all so tired to fully enjoy them. We did have a nice evening and an empty campground to enjoy a lovely, quiet campfire and our new bathing invention...the hot water bucket bath which is exactly what it sounds like.

Next stop...Joshua Tree National park...bring on the heat!!

(I forgot to write down the mileage)