Well, it took 4 1/2 hours of driving, but we made it!
First order of business, set up camp!! Check!
Start fire!! Check!
Look Goofy?? Check...
After setting up camp, we made our way to Muir Rock, a.k.a. "The Rock," for some fun! This part of California had a dry summer so the water level was pretty low.
The boys could really care less about the majestic and tranquil surroundings. All they could see was a beach filled with rocks begging to be thrown. I seem to recall a certain someone with the same mindset...
Mylique Built a dam.
Zayvion found a stick.
Shane...found hypothermia. He didn't seem to care that the water was probably in the low 50s.
I told the boys that once upon a time, even dear old dad jumped off "The Rock". They were all about jumping in, until they realized that meant you had to first jump, then recover from the shock of cold water, then swim to shore. They didn't like the idea of any of those.
Look, big trees!
Now we're inside one! The level of bravery to enter the trunk, from greatest to least goes from left to right. Yes, that's youngest to oldest. I love traumatized children.
Dad forgot plates, who cares! Dig in!
Shane's first S'mores. I think this is how the term "happy camper" was born.
It rained all night! Who cares! Fire!
We all slept in one tent and against all odds, we made it through the night! It was about 39 degrees the next morning, so the boys were quite elated to find out that we were going to have hot oatmeal. Dad forgot bowls, too! Who cares! Dig in!
We checked out Boyden's Cave. It was named after the man who found it and later lived in it alone for 10 years in the 1800s. It had cool speleothems (rock formations...I had to look this one up!), but I think I'll still take my house over a cave.
The Autolog: you used to be able to drive on top of it and snap a picture of your car parked on it; however, it is now broken in half and you can't drive on it anymore...so now it's just a normal 22ft in diameter fallen tree...because those are so normal....
Back side of the Autolog.
The Tunnel Log! Even the Yeti fits!
I would have shot closer to the van, but the inside of it seriously looked like we lived inside of it...
Our last stop of the trip was to visit the Sherman Tree. On our way down to the tree we ran into a little family of black bears. Mama and her two cubs. They crossed the path perpendicular to it and had two groups of onlookers about 20ft away; one on the low side and another on the high side. Momma had a tag in her ear and could care less about the people, which is surprising since she has cubs. There were two park rangers following behind to make sure the people didn't interfere. Probably more for the people's safety than the bears'!
A great trip topped off by a visit to the largest tree in the world. Interestingly, the photo was taken by a nice Swiss couple from Zurich. I told them about my two visits to the western Swiss Alps and exchanged goodbyes in German....I used to be so embarrassed when my father would just start having conversations with random strangers...it has come full circle...
It was absolutely wonderful to camp in Kings Canyon again. So many wonderful memories from these national parks; I hope our kids appreciate these trips. Thanks mom and dad for making me a life-long camper!
