Awoke at my campsite to snowfall and what my car claims was 24 degrees of cold. Luckily my sleeping bag and tent were up to the challenge, and I didn’t realize just how cold it was until I emerged, bleary-eyed, into the day.
Broke camp in record time, partially because of how cold it was, but mostly because I wanted to see this:
I took many photos of that sunrise, but in my experience, it’s one of the harder things to convey through a photo, so I’ll leave it at that.
Watching the sheets of water evaporating off of Half-dome was perhaps one of the better experiences of my life, but the day wasn’t done giving me beautiful sights yet. More on that later.
After filling up on beauty, I took off for Sequoia and King’s Canyon. After some consideration, I decided on coming up from the southern entrance, to hit Sequoia first, and it turned out to be the right call. Beautiful place, I know Yosemite gets all the love, but Sequoia gave it a run for it’s money.
There was a sign for a place called Moro Rock, and on a whim, I checked it out, after all, how could I resist a sign like this:
Those stairs nearby bested me. It was only a quarter mile hike, but it took about as much energy as the five mile loop of the previous day. But with each step, my eyes grew wider, until, well, why don’t I just show you…
If these photos convey even a tenth of how incredible that view was, I’ll consider them enormous successes. NOTHING I’d seen on this trip so far held even tiny candle to this. Spent probably close to an hour up here, just mesmerized. Eventually, I had some company, a pair of out-of-breath hikers who were as delighted as I was to have made it the the top. I asked if they could take a picture for me, as I’d neglected to bring the tripod, and we got to talking. Asking folks for a picture is a great icebreaker! Turns out they’re headed to Salem!! Couldn’t believe it! Apparently there’s a tandem bike event happening in the area!
Finally though, I had to come back down to earth, and spent the rest of the day driving the General’s Highway. Definitely up there with route 1 and the Avenue of Giants for most incredible drives thus far. some of the biggest trees in the world rising on either side.
While I technically made it to King’s Canyon, Cedar Grove and much of the park was closed due to weather, so I may have to come back someday. Wouldn’t mind more time in Sequoia either!
In any case, I pulled into a lovely little inn for the night, where the owner allowed me to do some laundry, and I made friends with the local cats. one of them came to my door in the morning, and meowed until I came out and pet her. My heart can only handle so much!
The dining area is very neat, and has guitars and other instruments on the wall that guests are encouraged to play! I picked one up, mostly just to check it out, but this adorable little kid came up to me and asked if he could try after me, and I ended up teaching him a pair of chords (A minor and E, if you’re curious). I love playing music, but that might be the best thing to come out of it in my life thus far. I hope his parents felt the same, he was certainly getting into it by the time I left, hah!
Slept very well that night. And it was needed, had a long drive to Death Valley ahead of me!
Where’s George? 