2013-04-26

Yesterday, the 25th, I woke up not feeling like walking very far.  I think it was because we had driven the day before from a 500 foot elevation to over 7,000 feet.  Marilyn’s right ear was hurting.  So, we drove to Paul Evert’s RV in Fresno to get a new black water valve.  Ours leaks a little.  I will do the replacement next time we are at a full hook-up site.  After lunch we went to a Doc-In-the-Box to have Marilyn’s ear looked at.  After a cleaning, the doctor said there was a fluid buildup and gave her a nasal spray prescription.

Today, the 26th, Marilyn’s ear felt better (reduced fluid) so we headed up to King’s Canyon National Park. 

Our day started with Big Trees after we entered the park, followed by a drive to the bottom of King’s Canyon where we saw Waterfalls, and the effects of glaciers.

Next stop after the Visitor’s Center is the General Grant Grove and Tree.  One has to marvel at all of the trees in the grove.  They are magnificent at the bottom as well as at the top. 

The fallen trees have been used as shelter. 

The General Grant Tree takes three horizontal pictures from base to top.    By using the phone’s panorama function, the whole tree can be seen from bottom to top.  The General Grant Tree is the third largest tree in the world.  It was named after General Grant because it was US Grant National Park before it became Kings Canyon National Park.

This tree was interesting because part of its trunk was separated due to fire. 

After lunch, we took Subway, we drove from 6800 feet to the bottom of Kings Canyon at 3100 feet to drive along the Kings River. 

Along the way we could see beautiful mountain scenery. 

The first falls we came to was Grizzly Falls. 

The next falls was Roaring River Falls. 

This canyon is surrounded by some of the most spectacular rocks. 

We did finally find some wildlife at the bottom of the canyon. 

We continued along the river to the end of the road.   

After having reached the bottom of the canyon at 3000 feet, and then driving to the end of the road at 4800 feet, we then had to retrace out route back down to 3000 feet, and then back up to 6800 feet before we could drive out of the park and down to Visalia at about 400 feet.

The day had its ups and downs as well as around many a curve, but it was a beautiful day with great weather and scenery.

Type at you later.

2013-04-22, 23, 24

On the 22nd, we moved from the Lodi Elks Lodge south to the Visalia Elks Lodge.

On the 23rd, we walked in the area for 2 plus miles.  After lunch, we got the Jeep an oil change, and then drove to the convention center followed by the chamber of commerce to obtain brochures for our drive in to Sequoia National Park tomorrow.

Today is the 24th, and we had a wonderful day in Sequoia National Park.  We spent the whole day in the park trying to stop at all of the wonderful tourist locations.    Upon entering the park with my free entry Old Folks Card, we followed the Gate Ranger’s advice and stopped at the first visitors center.  He said it is always a good pit stop.  (Later on the road we saw a sign that said “Last Restroom Before the Half'-hour Road Construction Stop).  Sequoia National Park is amazing, and we had an absolutely wonderful day starting with our leaving the house at 9am, and getting back at about 6:45pm.

Early  sights were a creek, Moro Rock from the road, and snow covered mountains. 

We continued on to Tunnel Log, which fell in 1937.  The CCC thought it would be a good idea to cut a tunnel for cars to drive through. 

Our next stop was a hike around Crescent Meadow to get out to Tharp Log, which was a log turned in to a summer cabin for use while his cows had been moved to these mountain meadows.  We saw snow on the north side of the meadow.    Of course the Sequoia’s and the lodge pole pines were all too tall to get in one picture.    But we did get to see a duck (our only wildlife other than insects. 

The Tharp log cabin has been partially restored.  Of course it was very rustic even when in use. 

Next stop was to see the trail to and views from Moro Rock.  Needless to say, we did not climb all the way to the top. 

But, even though the stairs were intimidating for us, at  our age and health, the views were amazing, even as far as we decided to go. 

We thought it interesting to see the growth on the north side of the trees. 

Next stop was to see the General Sherman Tree.  It is not the oldest, nor the tallest, but is is the largest tree in the world by volume.  It is even still growing even though its top is dead, sort of like us old folks that keep growing around the middle. 

Marilyn found this Buttress Tree stump interesting, just in the shapes of the tree roots. 

Last but not least, I took panorama pictures of trees with my phone.  The last one is General Sherman.  (Note:  at the visitor center, I asked the Ranger if they were just partial to Union Generals, but he assured me that we could find General Lee in the Forest also. 

Type at you later.