Mario Andretti & Wallace Stegner

Yesterday we drove the 60 miles or so to Kings Canyon National Park. It's actually the same park as Sequoia, but you know, different. In 1890, Sequoia become the 3rd National Park established, and General Grant National Park followed. General Grant was an area that surrounded the General Grant Grove, which is where we traveled to yesterday. In 1940 it was enlarged to include land to the east, and renamed Kings Canyon National Park. The running of the parks was combined in 1943 to save costs during WWII. And that's the end of today's history lesson. 😉 We headed out of Three Rivers (after coffee, of course), and through Sequoia Nat'l Park to Kings Canyon. 

The General Sherman Tree is the largest tree, by volume, in the world, so it is intensely popular. There are not a lot of people here in general, but they were ALL in the Sherman parking lot. So we drove on by! The best adventures are found in the least likely of places. 

Our next stop was the Lost Cove, where we had the place all to ourselves. 

We also learned how to do a remote picture with our phone and watch. There was a learning curve, and lots of laughter.

To say that the Generals Highway is a curvy road would be a vast understatement. During road trips, I am usually in the passenger seat, in charge of navigation and entertainment. But I get car sick really easily, so at the first sign of a curvy road, I'm the driver. This road went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth the ENTIRE time. At one point I really felt like this is what it would feel like to be a good slalom skier, leaning into each curve. Or maybe a race car driver. My Jeep really loves to show off on a wilderness road.  Who am I to deny that?

In Kings Canyon Park is the Grant Grove of Sequoias.  When you see Sequoias in a row, they have grown out of a dead Sequoia. When a giant falls, a huge space is created in the sky, and seedlings grow along the fallen stump, reaching for that empty space above. There was also a botany lesson at this point about the difference between baby Incense Cedars and baby Sequoias. I feel like they are not called "babies" but there is a decent chance that I can now tell the difference between the two.

First on the loop was a fallen Sequoia. Over time, people (and horses!) have lived in there! We easily were able to walk through. 

Pictures are hard to convey the sheer size of these giants. Their size, their age...it's awesome. The General Grant Tree is so huge at the bottom that it would take 20 people holding hands to encircle it. By volume, it would hold 37 million (MILLION) ping pong balls. 

After a car picnic, of questionable quality, we headed for the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway. On the way I really got my Andretti on. So when I saw the "Road Closed" sign, I didn't slow down, I just veered right onto a new road. We were several miles on this new experience when mom said, "I can't believe you took this road!"  😂 This is what adventures are made of!  And so on to Hume Lake we went! 

At Hume Lake is an adorable village with a Christian camp, several restaurants and lake activities. We found a road that would connect us back to the main highway, and I was game for it.  I flashed by the large yellow WARNING sign, and shouted "I got this!!" when the road turned snowy. Around the next bend, I came to a quick halt as I processed the rest of the sign SNOW WILL GET DEEPER. My travel partner mumbled, "You don't got this."  🤣  And yes, Andretti turned around instead of rolling the dice. 😉

In between Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon is Sequoia National Forest. You feel like you're on top of the world. 

We needed this vacation to just get out, to start to rinse off the fear and stress of the last year.  We are not back country hikers, we do not camp. One of us can't stand dirty hands and is overly picky about the bathroom she might use. But still. We love our National Parks, love discovering the wonders within, soaking up the wild spaces. Finding this quote from Wallace Stegner, atop a beautiful mountain hit all the marks. This is us. 

"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.”

#findyourpark

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Star Baker

This morning we got coffee and griddle donuts and headed to Slick Rock. As an aside, griddle donuts are THE BOMB. I believe it's a normal glazed donut smooshed in a waffle iron. So good. 

Slick Rock is just what it sounds like. Lots of gorgeous smooth rocks in the Kaweah River. Apparently this area is very crowded in the high heat of summer. The brisk wind today meant that we had it mostly to ourselves.

Before I tell you the next part, it's worth mentioning that when we left our house this morning, we found the garbage that the owners had put out at the street was strewn about near the gulley behind our house. There are many bear signs around, so the mind starts to make connections. And so when, during breakfast, we spotted a bear on the hillside on the other side of the river, we were so excited! I'm not going to show you the picture because if you determine it's a cow 1/2 an hour before we did, that would be a real bummer. We did learn later that "problem bears" from the park are rehomed on the hillside behind our house. While we had a watch party later in the hot tub, all we saw was a bobcat. 

Our indoor adventure today consisted of baking and eating. Fourth and fifth graders at my school were treated to a baking demonstration about a month ago via Zoom. Using those recipes, we baked up a storm! We made garlic knots to go with our pasta dinner, cinnamon rolls for tomorrow, and a braided loaf just for fun. I've never made any bread except pizza dough, so it was pretty rewarding!  We also made blackberry and basil mules from a mix we got at Harry & David.  It was a yummy evening!

We may also be binging The Great British Baking Show season 8.... 😉

A note about home, where a mutiny on Hemlock Street was brewing today.  In pre-COVID times, my cats ate twice a day, like most pets. They had breakfast before I left for school, and dinner when I came home. And all was right with the world.  But for roughly the year I was home, the schedule shifted. Cats usually sleep 20 or so hours a day. Unless you are home with them, and then they push the envelope to be by your side every second. Winnie has loved CDL. The document camera was her favorite, although she enjoyed math and staff meetings as well. She's a bit of a diva, and loved her camera time. So she was up, and active more than the average feline. I altered our schedule to feed both cats smaller amounts more often. This kept Winnie more or less controlled, although my students would probably laugh out loud at that assessment. This morning my dad sent me this proof of life photo of my furry munchkins, and made a comment about them not wanting to chat, just wanting to eat.  I zoomed in on Lanny's face, and my heart dropped a little. In his face was a world of expression he usually lacks. And it was then that I realized they had been on an inadvertent diet since my departure on Friday. I told my dad to feed them twice a day, but didn't switch the scoop back to the larger scoop! They had been eating HALF the normal amount of food. Whoops.  Fortunately for me, they will totally blame this snafu on my dad! 😹

We literally do not know what tomorrow brings! You know, other than those cinnamon rolls! 😉

Sandals and Snow Boots

 We woke up today to clear blue skies and sunshine. 🌅 Waiting outside Sequoia Coffee with sunshine on our faces felt so good! Coffee in hand, we headed into the park. 

Our first stop was at Hospital Rock. As with many things, the importance of this place is not entirely known. There are petroglyphs, and it was thought that a Mono or Yokut healer might have treated people passing through.  What was truly amazing where these perfectly round circles worked into the rock where acorns would have been ground into a flour substance. Can you imagine how many acorns it would take to make a usable amount of flour? 

Then we headed up Generals Highway in search of really big trees. 💚

On the way, we saw this rock monster (are you looking at those angry eyes??), this beautiful grey fox, and a lone turkey. It's like a children's book in the making! 😉

I think the weather started to change around the 4,000 ft level. Dry pavement turned to wet, brown grasses turned to strips of snowmelt, and by the time we parked (6,500 ft) we were parking in a snowy scene. These gals climbed out of of the car in their sandals, scrambling to put snow boots on! 

These trees. 💖 Is it their size? The Sentinel is about 260ft tall, with a 25 ft diameter. Or is it their age? Sequoias in the area we saw today average about 2,000 years old.  I think Sequoias are generally talked about in regards to their overall volume, but their age is staggering. We stood in the presence of living beings thousands of years old today. That is so hard to process! 

One thing is for sure: the beautiful red color was stunning in the winter wonderland. 

And while there were hikes to take, and more trees to see, we went home and napped. We had to work through some guilt about not charging into the forest, but in the end, we’re TIRED! Teaching has been, more than anything, emotionally exhausting this year. 7Dees has been busier than ever, what with people staying home and working on household projects. And what’s a vacation if not for rejuvenation? 

Waaaaaaaaay in the back is the Coast Range!

More importantly, what’s a vacation without delicious food? There are several restaurants open for take-out in Three Rivers, but we chose the Quesadilla Gorilla food truck. Just to make you feel like you’re really here, I spent most of the day trying to make those two words rhyme. ;)  We are eating delicious food and laughing at the maniacal elves in Christmas Chronicles 2. 

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Little Bear Cottage

Yes, Thelma & Louise still exist! I think the blog shed a little tear when I logged on tonight. Like everyone else, we have spent the last year at home, doing our part to quell the pandemic. 

This trip was born out of a moment several months ago when mom called me from Fresh Foods (local grocery store) after work to ask if I wanted anything. I bursted into an ugly cry and through heavy sobs asked why she hadn't come to get me. I wanted to go too! Go anywhere! You know what I'm talking about!! And so the search was on for a destination that was safe, and would fill our buckets. We found Little Bear Cottage, tucked into the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, near the entrance to Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park. 

Lake Kaweah, a few miles from "home"

To get here, we've done some driving! To be fair, I've done some riding, reading, and singing, and my travel partner has done the bulk of the driving. I mean, have we been driving, or flying? Californians drive FAST! It feels like we've been going backwards for hundreds of miles, while still driving upwards of 70.  

Our first stop was still in Oregon, at the Rochester covered bridge, which is close to Sutherlin. And that's all I can really say about the location (which is terrifying because I was driving for this stretch!). 

In this very English looking photo, those are white cows, not sheep in the background! 

It's roughly 13 hours from Cannon Beach to Three Rivers, so we headed for a halfway point of Redding. Coming into the Siskiyous we had a beautiful sky to greet us! 

We arrived in Redding just at sunset. Just enough time to stretch our legs and walk across the Sundial Bridge. I'm not a real architecture goon, but this bridge is beautiful. 

The second half of the drive was not as interesting.  Lots of pavement, lots of cars, lots of driving. But here we are safely, ensconced in the most darling of houses (AirBnB). We've got groceries, and a hot tub on the deck, so...🤷 We have every intention of seeing lots of big trees, but are equally as committed to doing a fair bit of nothing inside these walls, which are thankfully, different than the walls we've been looking at for the past year. 

We hope your Spring Break is shaping up to be satisfying and safe as well! 💖 Hope to see you back here for more T&L adventures! 

Hung on either end of Rochester bridge.