Riding Along in My Automobile

We reached Yosemite just as the sun was throwing its last red rays of light on El Capitan! Chris was driving Peter's truck so that he could rest a little in preparation for the next few days. All of us were absolutely stunned looking up at the granite cliffs surrounding us! Yosemite was as incredible as everyone told us it would be!

We got a little confused riding around the valley looking for a place to camp, but once we found it we set up our tents and got busy creating a fire. It was nice to have a fire again! We warmed up the tri-tip and roasted vegetables that were leftover from the Steven's house on the fire and settled into our tents. Peter had to use Chris' sleeping bag because he had forgot his at home! I know right, what an amateur, forgetting a sleeping bag on a camping trip! Anyway, we all stayed warm that night despite the constant rain that started sometime in the early morning. In the morning it briefly stopped raining long enough for us to make breakfast, but we were severely disappointed by the fog that rolled into the valley that night. There were zero views of the cliffs! We were up in the air about whether we should wait out the weather or drive to Sequoia National Park that night. Once it started snowing...HARD...we at least decided we would not be staying in our tent! It was soaked and sagging under the weight of the snow that had fallen on it. We packed it up and left our site and went to find somewhere dry to think over our options. After walking around the Lodge, the store, the visitor center, and sitting in a warming hut we finally made up our minds to drive to Sequoia. 

That night we stopped for pizza and a beer in Fresno. Peter generously paid for the meal! Thanks buddy! That night we camped in a pullout just outside of Kings Canyon National Park. In the morning we ate breakfast and piled into Peter's Truck. The Road to Sequoia was closed so we visited Kings Canyon instead. We saw the General Grant Tree which is the third largest tree in the world and the second largest Sequoia tree in the world! After we did the small hike through the Grant Grove we drove to the end of the road, through the canyon.

The walls were extremely high and the canyon was very narrow. It was extremely beautiful, and until we planned this road trip, we had never even heard of the park, but rest assured it is worth seeing! At the end of the road we did a hike through the Zumwalt meadows. It gives great views of the canyon and the tall granite faces on either side while standing in a wide meadow. There was great rock climbing in the area but we did not have time to sample any of it...guess we'll be coming back! When we finished the hike we got back in the truck and headed towards the the pullout where the Jeep was still parked.

No purple leaves for Lauren! What a bummer!

It was time to say goodbye and part ways. We enjoyed our time with Peter immensely, he is my best friend and very important to us! We love him! It was an emotional parting since we knew that it would be much harder to see him, since two months earlier he had moved to California. We know he is in good hands, that he works with an awesome mentor and leader, and that God has him right where he is needed. Nevertheless it was tough to know that our visit was over. We had been looking forward to it for a long time! When we had finally said goodbye we drove our Jeep back up the road towards Sequoia National Park. The road had opened earlier that afternoon. Highway 198 was wet and icy and was as high as 7500' which is the highest elevation that sequoia's will grow at. As we were driving we found a road that had not been plowed yet and we decided to drive down it to see if we could camp there for the night. The road wound back into the national forest for a few miles and we followed it until we found a place to camp. Chris pulled the tarp and the tent out of the Jeep to let everything dry as Lauren made dinner. At 6:00 in late October it was already so cold that all the water droplets froze. We had as fancy a meal as you can have from the kitchen of a Jeep Cherokee. It was sauteed chicken and spinach tortellini with vodka sauce! Certainly one of the top meals we have prepared! The night was extremely cold, we don't know what the temperature dropped to but we woke up to a lot of ice on the inside of the Jeep. That day we began exploring Sequoia National Park by hiking to the General Sherman tree. It is the largest tree (by volume) in the world. The tallest tree in the world is a Coastal Redwood from California (379 feet), the largest diameter tree is a cypress from Mexico (46 feet), the oldest tree is a bristlecone pine (4700 years old), but no other tree has as much wood in its trunk as the Sherman tree! Its base diameter is 36 feet, 275 feet tall, and approximately 2,500 years old! During a storm years ago, its second largest branch broke off and crushed both the pavement and the fence encircling it. The branch alone was over 6 feet in diameter!

 Those trees were incredible, we enjoyed seeing them even more than the redwoods, because even though they were a lot shorter their trunks were much more massive and they were so orange! Beautiful trees! After we saw General Sherman we did another hike through the grove of giants and saw many more gigantic trees all ringing a meadow. We stopped by the museum to learn more about the trees and the park and were amazed at how dependent the trees were on fire to survive. Their cones needed fire to open, the brush needed to be cleared by fire so the seedlings could take root, the competing plants thinned out by fire for the seedlings to survive, and nutrients added to the soil. When the park was founded it suppressed the fires for about 60 years. No new trees grew in that time and the forest became overgrown so that if a fire did come through it would burn hot enough to kill all the giants as well as the undergrowth! It was an extremely fascinating landscape since all the trees in the forest had fire scars and damage, and yet they had the ability over time to heal themselves and survive all but the very hottest fires! So awesome!

As we drove back towards Yosemite, we came upon a very surprising sight. On the side of the road we saw a sign for THE Sun-maid raisin factory. Lauren, needless to say, really really wanted to stop in at the gift shop! Chris accidentally drove past the turn off and was a little irritated at the fact that he had to turn around and drive back because of raisins! The irritation Chris felt quickly left once he saw how excited Lauren was to stand next to her favorite icon! She took pictures next to her and then we bought a package of raisins and left.

Because we had to leave Yosemite without doing any hikes earlier in the week we decided to return and try to do the Glacier Point hike. After checking with the Park Rangers to ensure that the trail was open after the snow, we headed towards the top. The views were astounding! Half Dome loomed in the foreground and at the beginning of the hike we saw El Capitan and The Sentinel.

No waterfalls were running at this time of the year but we saw the dry channel where Yosemite falls would have plummeted over 300 feet to the valley floor! When we finished the hike we made dinner in a picnic area and started our drive towards Sonora Pass and Death Valley!