Sequoia and Kings Canyon

Today has been a beautiful day in the mountains of California.

We left the Airstream in our Visalia campground this morning and headed east toward Sequoia National Park.  Since Trish is subject to carsickness, and since we were not pulling the Airstream, it was the perfect time for her to drive for the day.

By the time we entered Sequoia National Park the temperature had dropped from 90 to 65...formula starting for a perfect day.

No matter how many times I have been here, there is no way to emotionally remember the heart impact that comes with the first vision of the giant trees.  And, there are so many of them.  It is not just a freakish one or two, they roll on by the hundreds, towering well over two hundred feet tall with many being more than twenty feet in diameter.

Trish almost hiding in the fire scar of a giant unnamed Sequoia..

The sky was pure clear blue framing the towering tops of these giants.  We stopped again and again to silently stare and breathe deeply as we thought of their two millennia lives and more.

They even come in bunches!

The road goes on to Kings Canyon National Park (originally called General Grant National Park in 1890).  More gigantic trees, including one fallen hollow behemoth that was already being used as a picnic shelter in 1900.

The climax was a visit to the tree named General Grant, a designated National Memorial for all people fallen in service to their country.  At 278 feet it is nearly as tall as a thirty story building and taller that the Space Shuttle upright on its launchpad.

Tomorrow we go to Yosemite for more ways to fill our eyes and hearts.