King’s Canyon National Park

What up big homies!

Second day without cell service, and while I miss talking to you guys on a daily basis, there is something wonderful about not being reachable. Although, we have had our phones with us to take a panorama here and there.

We got up around 5 am this morning to go back to Moro Rock to watch the sunrise. It was so peaceful to get up and be the only ones around. We climbed back up the rock, which is no small feat, ate some of the breakfast items that we allegedly commandeered from our hotel, and waited for the sunrise. It ended up not being quite as spectacular as yesterday’s sunset unfortunately, but a great experience and great view nonetheless. A big part of the reason was that the sky was pretty grey because of the smoke from wildfires. We haven’t gotten to see much of a blue sky since we got here because of them!

We decided yesterday to get up early for the sunrise and then head over to King’s Canyon National Park to see everything there. It’s a pretty long drive because of the mountain roads. So we headed to King’s Canyon next, which is broken up into two sections: one little one to the northwest of Sequoia National Park and one big one to the northeast. Sequoia National Forest is in between the two. We drove to Grant’s Grove first, which has another one of the biggest trees in the world. It really is unreal how big these trees are. They don’t feel like real life. It feels like something out of Fern Gully or Lord of the Rings.

Then we continued to head toward the large section of King’s Canyon, through Sequoia National Forest. We stopped at Hume Lake to eat lunch around 10, which was really pretty and quiet, grey sky and all. We were both getting a little hangry, so we needed to remedy that situation. What was really nice about everywhere that we’d been so far was that there were hardly any tourists because of how early we had gotten up. It was really relaxing to enjoy things without Pierre and Chin Po snapping selfies and being all around annoying.

After we left Hume Lake, we found out that the road was closed to get over to the big section of King’s Canyon because of a controlled burn they were doing. There are a lot of informational signs everywhere that talk about how Sequoias need fire to continue to grow and sprout new seedlings. So, I guess the controlled burn is something they do every so often if lightning doesn’t take care of it for them. The road closure was a little bit of a bummer, but we made the best of it.

We came back to the campsite to take a nap in our hammocks. We were all tuckered out. We stopped by the Visitor’s Center to buy tickets to Crystal Cave, which we decided to do later in the afternoon. Our naps were on point. The weather was about 70 degrees with a bit of a breeze. Prime sleeping conditions.

After our nap, we headed back out to do a couple of the trails that we hadn’t done yet. They were all nice.

Next we drove down a crazy windy road to Crystal Cave, which was about 45 minutes away (although only around 9 miles). This place was really cool. Literally. The temperature inside was 48 degrees. The tour we went on was very informative and it was awesome to be in a cave, since I don’t remember ever seeing one.

We’ve loved thinking about all these different environments that the Lord has given us to explore and enjoy. They’re all so wonderful in their own ways.

We got back at the campsite around 6, cooked dinner, packed some things up to leave early the next morning, and relaxed around the fire. I’m currently watching my sweet and lovely wife tend the flames as I write this. Life is good. Jesus is better.

Two days without a shower, Mom, and I smell like roses.

Love,

Taylor