June 17

I'm in Sequoia National Park for just a couple days. I have to leave this internet site now because it is getting dark and since I'm staying in one rustic tent cabin with no electricity I better get settled in before I can't see a dang thing. Maybe we'll get stars.

It's An Adventure! I have some pretty good 'looking on the bright side' shots which I'll put up tomorrow.
Not much spring left, but a little!
Awwww.
There are tons of these guys still around.
This place is on the path between my cabin and the restaurant. Pretty dang gorgeous.
June 18

This is the view out my back window and there is a similar scene out the front door. The cabin, one of those tent jobbies is like my shed out back, made from plywood, fabricated and constructed in the 20s, and unlike my shed, this building was never painted. How has it survived?

There's no nothing in there either, except two beds and a side table, but amazingly the bed was very comfortable, the sheets were thick and fresh, and the blankets were even clean. You just can't be too fussy about the creepy crawlies.

The trees don't grow straight and there's not a thing I can do about it!
As you make your way to 'the wash house' you stumble upon these, and the smells are as magnificent as you remember.
Here are a couple shots of the tent cabins; I did go for the more flattering angles.
The entire park was sold out - all the camp sites, these cabins, the hotels, everything. And yet it did not feel crowded at all. The trails were free of crowds and at least here it was calm and quiet the entire time.

I didn't see anyone using the cabins as a real camp site meaning cooking, laundry, chairs and shade setup, like you see in the campgrounds. I was very surprised by how quiet it was.

If you're going to do anything other than sleep overnight you'll be a lot more comfortable if you bring comfortable chairs and Light! It's pretty dark in these cabins day and night. You don't need to worry about food though. The coffee kiosk opens early, the restaurant is quite fine, there's a pizza joint open until 9pm, the market has fruit, veg, sandwich makings etc.
This morning I took a hike up the Buena Vista trail. It's the same hike I took with Sandy and Nancy in Sequoia late last year. The map says it's one mile one way with a 600 foot increase in elevation and it did feel pretty much up up up the whole way.

This is mid-June and I'm thinking May would be wildflower mania around here. There are supposed to be wildflowers into June too but the ranger said there was so little snowfall this winter that the meadows are dried up and the wildflowers are gone.
This trail's claim to fame is a view of King's Canyon from the top of this outcropping of rock. Up up up.
You see these cairns marking the trail and as you pass over long stretches of rock you are grateful for the hint since the foot prints are gone. Usually there is just one or two to lead the way but here you are practically at the summit and all the cairns (there are at least five in view) seem to be clapping and calling out 'here come this way you made it come this way yea yea you made it!'.
King's Canyon they said? All that way for this?
For real, that color, I didn't make it up, honest.
I climbed around a little at the top and came to this view which I think is King's Canyon. I don't know why, it just seems more dramatic. So I tried to find a better view looking in this direction and in the process got completely lost. Hmmm.

And I had not seen one single soul on my upward journey. I had water, snacks, TP(!), I was fine. No problem. I eventually located the cairns and was on my way down. Which reminded me to Pay Attention! Pay Attention is really the basic tenet of Don't Fall - I just need to extend the application.
In the afternoon I went to a ranger talk, one of the special joys of Our National Parks. This guy was demonstrating being a cactus. The kid in the corner is his son thinking his dad is pretty funny alrighty.

(Very Bad dodging on the kid. Bad photoshoping-girl! Do it again! Ok, I will... later...)
A bird. The only wildlife I've seen so far are of course plenty of bugs, then chipmunks and squirrels, then lizards, then birds.

It's a whole lot easier to take a picture of a big slow animal nearby compared to these darting around speed freaks a football field away. But I can't resist so there you are. First I set the zoom to max and then clip an itty-bitty section from the result. I'm easily delighted.
Because it's red.
June 19

Today, in the parking lot at the Visitor's Center in Grant's Grove, King's Canyon/Sequoia National Park, there was a vw bus exactly like the one on this album cover, all the windows and doors open, Dylan's Masters of War pouring out.

The bus was a total rusted wreck, the bumper pieces held together by a relatively pristine sticker announcing Kerry for President. The whole scene put an idiot grin on my face...but that doesn't make me a bad person.

My new idea is 3 nights in Sequoia makes for a good trip, and you have to stay in different places or you'll be on the road more than on the trail and not have time to finesse the weather.
HomeUSA California, it's a Nation State • Sequoia National Park • '07 Jun: a little hit of Sequoia


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