This past weekend, Chris and I visited Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Forest. We wanted to take advantage of the close vicinity (4 hour drive) of the national parks and visit before Memorial weekend started off the summer season.
We left LA at 7am Saturday morning and arrived in Kings Canyon around 11am. We headed straight to Cedar Grove into Kings Canyon to Mist Falls hike. A 9.1 mile hike that started in the bed of the canyon brought us to the canyon mid-level right next to a water fall that let out a LOT of mist, hence named Mist Fall hike. Here are some views from the hike.
The upper level of Mist Fall. This hike was beautiful, interesting, and varied--the first 2 miles were in sand, surrounded by the deep canyons, and required us to cross some streams. The remaining 2.5 miles went from climbing boulders to deep forests with moss covered trees. Also, we saw a black bear!!!! It wandered onto the path as we were heading back to our car ---only about a 100 ft away!
As we drove back to the lodge, we stopped by to take some pictures of the canyon.
We stayed at Stoney Creek Lodge, right in the middle of Kings Canyon and Sequoia Park --- we splurged a bit with the convenience of staying right in the middle of the park, but it was so worth it. A small 12 room lodge with delicious pizza at night and a filling breakfast in the morning, and we were well rested. We ate breakfast while watching a small family of deer!
We went to Sequoia last year when my parents were visiting, so this time we visited a different part of the park. We climbed Moro Rock, drove through the Tunnel Log, and walked around Crescent Meadow looking at the Sequoia trees.
Moro rock is awesome!!!! Its 350 stairs hugging a huge boulder and set in the crevices of a rock jutting out of the mountain. I'm so amazed at the engineering, the foresight, and the incredibly hard work that went into making this boulder accessible to ordinary people like us. I was so impressed with this and I was shaking as I climbed gingerly up this rock.
I don't think you can ever get sick of this view and the majesty of these 1000-2000 year old trees. Did you know that they self heal?!! These trees can withstand termite, fires, and diseases. If they make it to full adulthood (which is really rare), they seem like giants that can survive it all. Sequoias only grow at a certain altitude in this region of California. It made me remember my parents visit seeing the Sequoias--and how I still haven't written about our wedding and vacation last year!
Look at Chris between these two huge Sequoias. How do they grow so close to each other?
Driving through tunnel log! It's much more exciting to see in the picture than it is to actually drive though, but I was excited nevertheless.
An uprooted Sequoia tree that is 21 ft long...it was called Auto log because people used to drive their cars on the car on top!
A beautiful view of the Crescent Meadow. We saw a white tailed deer wandering around and we enjoyed a lunch nearby before we headed back to LA.
I'm so grateful to have access to this nature and environment. Conservation and preservation are so important and I feel increasing committed to doing what I can to save this environment. Being in nature is such a great way to gain perspective on the everyday troubles and definitely helped motivate me for the week heading up to this weekend and this rough work week ahead!
