{"id":884,"date":"2012-06-05T00:40:22","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T05:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=884"},"modified":"2012-06-05T00:40:22","modified_gmt":"2012-06-05T05:40:22","slug":"vacation-day-11-sequoia-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=884","title":{"rendered":"Vacation Day 11: Sequoia National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rich woke up again today! Hurray!<\/p>\n

I also woke up, but not voluntarily.\u00a0 I first opened my eyes to the sound of a very loud conversation outside of my window, in French.\u00a0 Then a couple of little girls were chanting, “We are up, we are up!”\u00a0 No kidding.<\/p>\n

Slowly the noises got more frequent and in all languages.\u00a0 It was only 7:00, people!\u00a0 The guys didn’t have to get up until 8:00 so neither did I!<\/p>\n

This was the day to leave Evergreen Lodge and head out to Sequoia National Park.\u00a0 The park was one of our last big destinations.\u00a0 We were headed for the big trees now.\u00a0 I really hated to leave Evergreen because we had done so little within the lodge.\u00a0 It seemed like a great place to come and spend a week and never leave the confines.\u00a0 It reminded me a lot of the Poconos Mountain resorts out east.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve tried to describe Evergreen Lodge to you, but I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve succeed in giving the best description.\u00a0 When I found it online, it sounded like little vintage cottages with little or no things to do.\u00a0 When we arrived, there was the office and store with its sweeping veranda style porch.\u00a0 Everything was cedar wood and very rustic looking.\u00a0 It turned out that the cottages were nicely planned and decorated with bathrooms and decks.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t have TVs, phones or WiFi connections, but they were much better than I had hoped for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lodge had all the amenities that you might want on the property.\u00a0 There was a restaurant, tavern with big screen TV for sports viewing only.\u00a0 The Recreation office had WiFi and computers.\u00a0 There was a game room, outdoor fireplaces, pool and hot tub with a bar serving good beers, and many other things.\u00a0 I felt a little pampered.<\/p>\n

Breakfast was simply in the restaurant.\u00a0 Our waiter this time was an English fellow.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I didn’t catch his name.\u00a0 His accent sounded like London. One of my hobbies is collecting accents and linguistics.\u00a0 I try to place people to their origins by their accents and word choices.\u00a0 The interesting part is working in family logistics to that.\u00a0 If I could have made money at it, I would have gotten a job dealing with linguistics.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, breakfast.\u00a0 Rick had his French toast and I had my pancakes.\u00a0 Rich went for the omelets again.\u00a0 The menu is limited here based on the supplies that they have for that period of time.\u00a0 The food is all still very good though.<\/p>\n

We packed up the cabin and double checked for anything left behind.\u00a0 The car was loaded with bags and accessories.\u00a0 Time to check out of Evergreen Lodge.\u00a0 We drove to the office and I went in with the keys.\u00a0 I told them how much we enjoyed our stay and grabbed a couple of pamphlets for other people back home.\u00a0 Next stop, Sequoia National Park.<\/p>\n

Well, not really.\u00a0 The change oil light had come one so we had to find someplace to change the oil.\u00a0 We stopped in Fresno at a Pep Boy’s.\u00a0 They were able to fit us right in.\u00a0 We had WiFi while sitting in the waiting room.\u00a0 It was Saturday, but I hadn’t seen my email in a couple days.\u00a0 Nothing too spectacular.\u00a0 Jim had titled one of his emails as: Spoiler Alert:\u00a0 Joy don’t look at this until you get back!\u00a0 I looked anyway, but it was simple and they had worked it out.<\/p>\n

I know, I know, I’m on vacation.\u00a0 But then I don’t feel too disconnected when I get back. This year, everyone seems to have a better idea of what’s going on and how to handle people.\u00a0 My minions are growing up and will soon leave the nest.\u00a0 That means that I’m needed less and less, which is what I wanted.\u00a0 Somebody else needs to be able to do my job, besides me.<\/p>\n

So we were off again through the fruit and vegetable gardens of the U.S.\u00a0 This is another section of California where they grow the things we buy from the grocery stores.\u00a0 The land is flat and sandy.\u00a0 Problem is, there is little water here.\u00a0 The King’s River runs through part of it and the other parts have irrigation channels through it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then we hit the hills that lead to the mountains that lead up.\u00a0 Seems strange that we are going up again.\u00a0 We just left all of that.\u00a0 But up we go.\u00a0 It’s pretty steep with the elevations going up.\u00a0 We get to around 6,000 feet when we arrive at the gates for Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks.\u00a0 These two parks are side by side so they share many of the same resources, like the park rangers.<\/p>\n

I asked directions to the John Muir Lodge, which is where we’ll be staying for a couple of nights.\u00a0 Turns out, the lodge is in the King’s Canyon side of the park.\u00a0 We are in the General Grant Village, which is just down the road from the General Grant tree grove.\u00a0 We check in and deposit our bags in the room.\u00a0 No TV or WiFi.\u00a0 There is a phone, but everything is long distance from here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our first stop is to the Visitor’s Center before they close.\u00a0 We get some basic directions and helpful advice from the rangers.\u00a0 We turn right and head out to see the General Grant tree grove first.\u00a0 This is a short drive up a winding road.\u00a0 The parking lot has cars and some RVs, but not full.\u00a0 I park in the shade, even though it is only 72 here today.\u00a0 You look around and there are rather large trees on both sides of the parking lot.\u00a0 These are only babies though.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Twin Sisters is to the left.\u00a0 The sun is shining brightly behind it.\u00a0 We hit the trail for the big guy first.\u00a0 General Grant is the first really big tree for us to see.\u00a0 It is actually the third largest tree by volume.\u00a0 The first largest is also here in the park.\u00a0 We walked the trail up and around.\u00a0 The first think you see is a tree lying on its side that you can actually walk through.\u00a0 It was really cool do to that. Literally, the temp was much cooler inside than out.<\/p>\n

We continued up the hill to find the General waiting for us.\u00a0 He is tall and so big around.\u00a0 We took lots of pictures and you can’t help but look upward at the top of the tree.\u00a0 Behind the General, there is a hill with a tree trunk that you want walk into like a cave.\u00a0 A large tree was standing back there that you could walk up to and touch.\u00a0 Rich and I had our picture taken there to prove how large they are.<\/p>\n

We came back to the parking lot area to get pictures of the Twin Sisters. Walking behind them, you could see them better with the sun at your back.\u00a0 Rich took pictures and I had Rick take my pictures standing in front of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We continued to walk down the parking lot to the trail at the back of the lot that the ranger told us about.\u00a0 The North Grove trail was a service road with markers for a trail\u00a0 It also announced that this was a cross country skiing trail.\u00a0 No snow today though.\u00a0\u00a0 We followed the trail for a ways, but it kept going down.\u00a0 Without a map on us showing the way, I decided to turn back.\u00a0 We later found out that the trail was about 2 miles and looped back to the service road again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We returned to the lodge to grab some dinner.\u00a0 As usual, the menu was limited to what they had on hand to cook.\u00a0 Rich and Rick got burgers while I got a salad.\u00a0 We ordered water to help with the dehydration after hiking.\u00a0 They actually charged us a $1.50 a piece for the water.\u00a0 I think that’s because they have to get the water up here.\u00a0 Rich figured it was because people ordered only water to drink.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After dinner, we stopped in the gift shop to check out the available hiking maps.\u00a0 We’ve found over the years that good hiking maps are a necessity.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I left the ones I had purchased on my desk at home.\u00a0 We found better maps for our purposes on this stay.\u00a0 They had great info and told about the trails in detail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So now it is about 6:00 and still 2 hours before sunset.\u00a0 We didn’t want to go back to the hotel just yet.\u00a0 Looking at the map, we found Panorama Point listed just opposite from the road going to the General Grant tree.\u00a0 Rich thought it went by the lodge we were staying in, but I didn’t see how it would.\u00a0 We went up the road and sure enough, it went right by the lodge.\u00a0 One for Rich then.<\/p>\n

The road was single lane, narrow, and very windy.\u00a0 We hit one really good hairpin turn about mid way.\u00a0 We were probably at 6,000 feet at the lodge and this road took us almost straight up the mountain behind the lodge to 7,500 feet.\u00a0 At this point, you got out and walked another 200 feet up some switchbacks to the top of the mountain for the point.\u00a0 It was beautiful though.\u00a0 We were looking out over the King’s Canyon Park.\u00a0 There was smog so it appeared very hazy.\u00a0 It was beautiful.\u00a0 Now I had to come back down that very windy and steep road, but we made it safely.<\/p>\n

We stopped by the market in front of the lodge to get something for my sweet tooth.\u00a0 Hiking had drained all the sugar out of me.\u00a0 We got some goodies and headed to the lodge.\u00a0 We got back in time to see a couple of raccoons trying to beg for food from a family on the bottom porch.\u00a0 No luck though.\u00a0 They finally scampered off into the woods when people started taking pictures of them.<\/p>\n

So we called it a night and had showers.\u00a0 I worked on my blog and pulled pictures from my camera.\u00a0 Another big day tomorrow in Sequoia.<\/p>\n

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This is me standing in front of the Twin Sisters at the General Grant Tree site. This just makes you feel so small in the world.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Our first good view of General Grant was this photo op from the path leading up. I caught Rick in the act.The General Grant is the 3rd largest tree by volume in the world. It's pretty big.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A fallen giant was in the General Grant trail area. We walked through to the other end and back again. Rick could touch the top with his fingers and he's 6' 3".Rick was trying to push over this rock at the top of Panorama Point. Don't worry, it was about the size of a garage. No one got hurt in the making of this photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Rick was trying to push over this rock at the top of Panorama Point. Don't worry, it was about the size of a garage. No one got hurt in the making of this photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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We drove up the hill behind the Lodge and then walked up another 200 feet or so to get this photo. It was beautiful looking over the King's Canyon side of the park here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rich woke up again today! Hurray! I also woke up, but not voluntarily.\u00a0 I first opened my eyes to the sound of a very loud conversation outside of my window, in French.\u00a0 Then a couple of little girls were chanting, “We are up, we are up!”\u00a0 No kidding. Slowly the noises got more frequent and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}