Year 2 - Day 203 - July 23

Since Sequoia and Kings Canyon are actually one and the same, we went through one to get to the other today. It was just a lot of scenery today, with more death-defying rides around mountains. We saw another named tree, (The tallest? Biggest around at the bottom? I forget it's special feature already.)

and some more wildlife. Right near the tree, a group of loud teenagers said LOOK, a rattlesnake! Right THERE! So of course I ran the other way with one other lady while the rest of the population went to point and take pictures. That whole line about snakes being more scared of us than we are of them is completely insane, by the way. From what I understand, the snake hung out, posed for pictures, and then meandered away from the path. So much for my plan of people & paved paths being the safe place! After the snake, we saw some canyons (hence the name) and waterfalls.

Also, we found a lovely lake.

We had a fantastic dinner tonight at the Gateway Restaurant. After last night's dinner at the Mexican place, we were expecting very little. First of all, the Gateway is the first restaurant after you come down the mountain from the park. Secondly, it overlooks the river at a rock-rushing-quasi-waterfall location. With all that going for it, the food doesn't even have to taste good. However, it was fantastic. I had bacon wrapped filet and the most delicious Caesar salad ever. Mike had some kind of fish of course. Tomorrow it's more driving & then Yosemite!

Year 2 - Day 202 - July 22

After a spectacular hot free breakfast (Thank you, Best Western!), we hunted down Aptos Coffee this morning. Mike enjoyed the donut he had on the first day so much & we never got back to that donut kiosk in the ferry building. Google, however, told us where Pepple's Donuts delivered their goods and one happened to be right across the street from our hotel in Aptos! Random but fun for him. So Mike had the great breakfast at the hotel PLUS a fancy donut. We spent hours and hours driving today, through lots & lots of agriculture. 

We passed strawberries, peaches, apples, oranges, pomegranates, lettuce, grapes, raspberries, walnuts, and I'm sure more but those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. At one point, we crossed the San Andreas Fault, but it didn't look like much. The part we crossed was just a lake.

When we finally got to Visalia (which is pronounced vuh-ZAIL-yuah not visa-lea, btw) we were starving. I checked on my phone and found the promising sounding Visalia Brewing Company. It was not promising, it was just a tiny bar with a super tiny menu, but it fed us. Another stretch of driving later, into the wild mountainous yonder, and we passed into Three Rivers and found our hotel. Three Rivers is the smallest town ever. It's a few motels, a few restaurants, and a grocery store. Plus, you know, rivers. They're all flowing pretty good and they're pretty, but that's about all the town has going for it. Our hotel is the Western Holiday Lodge ... but it quite obviously used to be a Best Western. They just scratched the "Best" off everything! It's not up to Best Western standards, but they're trying. It's definitely a family affair ... but just one step above camping. The room we're in is HUGE, probably at least 2x the size of our San Fran hotel, but there are cracks by the door and we have bugs flying around. Ick.

After dropping our stuff, we headed up into the park. Driving in, you get to follow the river for awhile, which is pretty the whole way.

Then, the pretty river stays down on earth where Rivers belong, and the road starts zooming around mountains, dangling high in the air. Mike loves zooming on those roads and I hate it. My right leg is already sore from slamming the imaginary brake pedal on my side, and I grab the handle on the door a lot. He just laughs at me and promises that he won't drive off the cliff. (I'm not so sure - it might not be his choice!) Luckily for me, they are putting in some lovely retaining walls on the way up the hill. Therefore, it's down to one lane for several miles and the traffic light tells you whether it's safe to drive.

I liked it because then we were in a line of cars and could only go as fast or slow as the car in front of us. :) At the top of the mountain, we saw the (supposed) biggest living organism on Earth,

The General Sherman. Yes. They name their trees. The sequoia trees are HUGE.

After walking the loop to see the giant tree, we decided to climb Moro Rock.

Well, I climbed as far as the first observation perch,

And Mike kept going all the way to the top.

I didn't have it in me to climb the giant rock without handrails or safety. Obviously I don't fall a lot when I walk around on a regular basis, but I lose my faith in my ability to not fall down & die when heights are involved. And really, the pictures aren't so different from the 2 heights, right?!?! :) We were reminded on the way down to watch for wildlife...

And then we saw the wildlife we were slowing down for!!

It was very cool to see. We got some closer zoomed in pictures, but this is the only one that didn't come out completely blurry. To finish out our day, we saw a tree that fell over,

(Which of course, also had a name, Buttress Tree) and then we drove through another tree that fell down,

which I think was tunnel log. (So creative with the names, huh?) Once we went down the mountain back to the bustling metropolis of Three Rivers, we hunted down a Mexican restaurant to finish our day.