Sequoia and Kings Canyon

 We arrived in Tulare, CA Friday afternoon after a lengthy voyage through the Mohave Desert up into the middle of CA. The temperature was 100+ and we were very grateful for our onboard generator supplying ample electricity for our house air conditioner. Our first stop at a gas station provide a bit of sticker shock. $4.99/gal. We found later we had been taken by the Shell Oil Co. because other stations were under $4. We had to stop thought because we didn't want our generator to go off when we reach a quarter of a tank. (Built in safety measure.)

 Saturday we ventured into the Sierra Nevada's to Sequoia National Park and a small section of Kings Canyon National Park. It took us slightly over an hour to get the Sequoia entrance and Charlotte and I both forgot how winding the road was. Many cutbacks and not for the feint of stomach. But once you arrive in the Land of the Giants you realize it was worth it. Photo's definitely don't provide the awesomeness of these trees or the landscape surrounding them. But here are a few to give you a little sense of what we saw,

 Phil and Casey are venturing back to Kings Canyon to see the parts we missed yesterday. Charlotte and I are chilling out. Tomorrow we're off to Yosemite. Pictures to follow.

                                                     

Pathway to the Giants

Many Yucca plants standing tall and in full bloom.

                                   

                                      This is the welcoming center. Many people and limited parking.

A couple of those pesky "happy campers"😁

So big you can't get them completely in the picture.

You've heard of a sack of rocks, well these are 

stacks of rocks in the foreground with Kings Canyon

beyond.

Little closer view of stacks of rocks.

"We simply need that wild country available to us, 

even if we never do more than drive to its edge and 

look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves

of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope."

Wallace Stegner, 1960

Possibly a future giant Sequoia.