Sequioa Kings Canyon National Park

Tuesday night we couldn't quite make it to Sequioa/Kings Canyon so we spent the night in a cheap hotel in a military town on the eve of 4th of July. We made it there late in the evening and stopped at the grocery store for milk before finding a hotel, you could tell people were loading up for BBQs the next day. Of course our affordable hotel was a total stinker, I dubbed the shower "bod pod" because it was large enough to stand in, and that was it. Bill had to go back to the store for ear plugs because the air conditioning units were so loud we thought someone was revving their semi truck outside of our room. So the difference between the Four Seasons Hotel to Motel 6 is noticeable. Slightly noticeable.

(Pic of the windy road as depicted by the navigation system) Bill decided he'd had enough of highways and wanted to take a forest road through the Sierra Nevadas so we could enjoy the scenery. Long story short, the road was so steep and so windy that we both ended up getting car sick, but the view, wow, that was great. burp. The constant braking and swerving and going 20 mph for 4 hours, not so great. But eventually we made it to the park entrance for Sequoia National Park and found yet another windy road to maneuver, what is it with this mountain range! I am presently reading a book about a park ranger who goes missing in these mountains and it was interesting to see some of the places mentioned in the book but the book is a bit of a disappointment (bor-ing) so I won't recommend it.

Anyway! This park boasts that largest living thing on the planet: a giant sequoia named "General Sherman" and what an amazing creature. Bill and I both were stunned by the sequoias and stopped to touch their bark, the oldest trees have soft bark, it's almost squishy or papery, like an old person's skin. We learned that sequoias are fire and mildew resistant which is why they live so long, the only thing that takes them down is if they topple over because their roots are shallow. Early settlers used to live inside felled Sequoias since they were so big and resistant to the elements. coo

We camped out at the park, despite the warnings about overflowing campsites our site was really only about 1/4 to capacity. The weather was still quite warm (around 95 up there at the high elevation and much hotter down in the city) so maybe that kept people away. We cooked dinner and basically went to bed, someone forgot to pack headlamps (ahem) and since we spent all day talking in the car... time for sleep. Except I tossed and turned all night, I was back on fertility drugs, it was hot in the tent, my new sleeping bag was too warm for the 70 degree temps at night and I kept sliding off the Thermarest and readjusting which was loud and the cycle repeated ad nausem. Then I started to hear noises. Loud noises, right outside the tent, where we are camped, in the heart of bear country. Our food was locked in a bear proof storage bin just 10 yards from where we are sleeping and there is something sounding like a bear rubbing itself on a tree just outside of the thin tent wall. I whispered to Bill who was sound asleep, I couldn't wake him without saying his name louder and I was almost paralyzed with fear from the possibilty of a bear. We had heard that the camp just down the road gets raided nightly and there was a very real possibility that a bear was patrolling our campsite for a pic-a-nic basket right then.

(Pic of Bill in a felled Sequoia that people used to live in) Finally at 3:30 am I woke Bill up and of course the minute he was awake the noises stopped completely. Bastard bear! Making me sound crazy! Bill said, "You either need to go to sleep now or we are packing up and leaving." Something about his voice, perhaps the tone of reason, made me fall asleep for the next two hours. Which was a relief except for the nightmares my brain concocted. I dreamed that my Dr examined my ovaries and they crumbed in her hand like dead plants. There was no way I would ever get pregnant. Then I dreamed that Bill got a cell phone call and started crying, the job interview he has scheduled for this week was canceled, they didn't want to see him and he wouldn't tell me why. The dreams were so real, I woke up distressed and crying. Yeah hormones! After brushing my teeth in the morning (pu) I walked over to a sequoia tree and touched its bark for strength, said a prayer, and decided to leave my fears behind with the bears.

We loaded up the car and as we were leaving the park we noticed several cars stopped and people standing on the side of the road. A mother bear and her cub were resting in a meadow, about 200 yards from the road. I got out to take a photo, but the fear was still lingering, I thought about how fast a bear can run and got back in the car. Fortunately we spent the next day at Yosemite National Park where the stunning views filled my heart with deep joy and finally let me put the bad dreams and fear behind me.