Sequoia National Park

My turn!

This morning we got up at 5:30 to make it to breakfast at 6 and steal some food on our way out. We escaped with two bananas, four bagels, some peanut butter, cream cheese and butter, two plastic knives and some napkins before they realized what we were doing and chased us down the hallway. Taylor dumped a bag of ice onto the floor so most of them slipped and fell, and the rest of them were overweight so they couldn’t catch us before we drove off. Close one.

Okay, that didn’t happen. But we did steal the food for camping.

We hit a bit of LA traffic on our way out, but as you see below our side ended up being way more fortunate than those heading into Los Angeles.

We had a beautiful drive through the mountains on our way to Sequoia National Park! California sometimes feels like a whole different country due to the different landscapes we see here: so few trees, lots of mountains that suddenly become deserts, and weird restaurants called “Carl’s Jr.” (I mean hellooooo it’s called Hardee’s people.)

It took us about 45 minutes to get from the park entrance to our campsite because of the winding mountain roads, but by the time we were there, all around us were humongous Sequoia trees. They’re unreal, so much bigger than you can believe. Just the circumference of them at the base is enough to make your jaw drop. And they’re beautiful.

First we hiked to the General Sherman tree, the biggest tree in the world, and wandered around in the woods there. The tourists were rampant… so much so we didn’t even think it was worth trying to have someone take a photo of us in front of it. But trust us, it is BIG.

Then we hiked to Moro Rock, which is actually terrifyingly high. You have almost a 360 degree view from the top, (amazing) but not much keeping you safe. I just decided sitting down felt the safest, but below is a photo of me pretending not to be scared standing up. The backwards thing is, Taylor was fine wandering around. He’s scared of roller coasters because he’s afraid that he’s not strapped in well enough and he’ll fall out, but up on top of a huge rock with only a handrail keeping him there, he’s all of a sudden Tarzan and wants to learn how to skateboard on the rails or something. Nonsensical. But I love him.

Next, more hiking. To Crescent Meadow, which must be where Bambi lives because it’s magical. We could have spent a few hours there, just enjoying the field of flowers, if we had brought more water and there weren’t irritating tourists doing touristy things that make people hate tourists.

I made a discovery today: People cheat when camping. How do they cheat, you ask? THERE’S A MARKET ON OUR CAMPGROUND THAT SELLS PIZZA. It may as well have been a hippity hoppin Papa John’s, because people were pounding that pizza. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that the market sold all the American goodies you can imagine – mac and cheese, Oreo’s, wine, and of course, candy of all colors. That is just crazy to me. Here I was, thinking we were all on the same level, camping to minimize what we need and to enjoy nature, and people are down at the market at 5pm chowing down on pizza. What has camping become.

We, on the other hand, rubbed sticks together (with lighter fluid, just to know what it was like to be a settler back in the day) and grilled our own simple little hot dogs and welcomed the experience. We even speared them with a stick to take them off the little grill, and ate them off the bare picnic table since we don’t have plates. THAT, my friends, is camping. Hmmph.

After dinner was my favorite part. Taylor had seen a sign for Sunset Rock earlier in the day, so we hiked it about an hour before sunset. We ended up being the only people on this HUGE rock that had a breathtaking view of the sunset, and we made sure we got photos. It was so much fun! I felt like we were on the level of the sun, up in the clouds, and we sat and thought about how generous God is to give us the gift of a sunset every single day.

After sunset is my least favorite part. We’d been warned about black bears all day long (there have been 5 “food break ins” by bears in the last 7 days) so I got scared of bears after dark and we pretty much sprinted the .7 mile trail. So, now you know I’m scared of heights AND bears. Welcome to Michelle’s mind.

Now, we’ve returned to our campsite and been through our photos of the day. Taylor is getting more into photography so it’s fun to do that together on this trip! We don’t even remotely have cell service up here, so this should be posted when we come back down the mountain on Wednesday. Tomorrow is King’s Canyon National Park – here we go!

Love,

Michelle