California, Part 2

Day 5: life in the slow lane

From 3 Rivers we enter Sequoia national park, and it's exactly what I expected. Temps are much lower and the park is less populated. After 3 days fighting with other tourists for a seat on the shuttle, this will be a welcome change.

plus, there's the biggest tree in the world. Suck on that, Yosemite!

Spend the afternoon doing chill forest strolls among the giant trees. No ruthless inclines, no crowded visitor center. Less infrastructure, as my Aussie boss Rohan would say.
Came very close to a bear and cub in a meadow, got to watch them scale trees and play. Came within about 50 feet of them, which is the closest we've ever been to a bear. That alone was worth the trip. Unfortunately, they were scurrying about and we couldn't get any clean pictures.

not pictured: bears a-scurryin'

Technically no hiking today, but did about 4 miles of forest trails
Campsite, dinner, s'mores. I used to hate sitting around at the campsite; I felt like I should be using every ounce of daylight to explore. Now, I don't mind so much. Been reading All The Pretty Horses on my Kindle. that book is awesome.

day 6: yet another canyon

up very early to drive to Kings Canyon, which takes about 2.5 hours.

pointy

 Get scolded by a park ranger for turning the wrong way into a parking lot.
Hiked 9m roundtrip to mist falls, deep into the canyon, alongside a river the whole way

Holy crap! The river is full of severed hands!

 King Canyon is like North Cascades in that it has only one road and most of the park is wilderness. Diff than Yosemite but still very impressive.

And that's it for this year's National Parking! That brings my grand total of national parks visited to 23, and I only started this hobby in 2006