Day 9 – Kings Canyon
Posted on 23. Jun, 2010 by Brad Cansler.
We didn’t get up for sunrise! At some point during the night Brad shut off the alarm on his phone so we slept in. Yea! If we go to bed at mid-night every night but get up at 4:30 every other morning, I might be able to handle that. As we headed out, Cindy gave us some cinnamon rolls they had made for breakfast. When we first arrive at Snow Line Lodge yesterday we weren’t too sure we had made a very good choice. As we left, Sydney asked if we could come back and stay here again!
First stop was the ranger station to get a cancellation stamp and a junior ranger program. We ate our Trader Joe’s breakfast and Cindy’s cinnamon rolls at a picnic table on the way to Grant Grove. It almost made me want to start camping again. The sun was warm, the air was cool, the sky was blue, the trees were magnificent and we had good food. What more could anyone ask for.
Sydney was pretty amazed by the size of the Sequoia’s. We had just been at Muir Woods earlier this week so she had seen the Coastal Redwood giants. The Sequoia’s are totally different. We walked the path around Grant Grove and ran into a ranger right at the beginning. She showed us some old photographs that they had uncovered from the early 1900’s that showed groups of people standing with some of the same trees that we were standing in front of. Of course that was just a drop in the bucket as far as the age of these trees goes. Sydney was able to walk thru a fallen Sequoia – though it seemed like it must have been more of a baby when it fell based on the size.
When we arrived at the General Grant tree it was pretty impressive. You have to look up and up and up. It was proclaimed the Nation’s Christmas Tree in 1926. It is also a National Shrine, the only living memorial to those who died in war. We learn all kinds of information letting Sydney participate in the junior ranger programs.
Finally we headed down into Kings Canyon. We stopped at the spot we scouted last night and it was a great spot for sunrise – we just weren’t there at sunrise. Hume Lake was beautiful but not the smooth-as-glass lake we had seen the night before.
We stopped a multitude of times on our way down into Kings Canyon to take photographs. It was beautiful. There was more to see and do than Brad and I had remembered. Maybe because the last time we were here it felt like 110 degrees. Sydney had fun at Grizzly Water Fall because she got well misted. Every time we went around a corner there was something that we needed to stop for. All I know is we made it to Cedar Grove visitor center at 4:58 and they closed at 5:00. The ranger checked Sydney’s book, took the bag of trash and swore her in as a junior ranger.
We hiked around, did more photographs around Roaring River Falls and finally tore ourselves away to head back out of the canyon. We caught sunset on our way out and Sydney and her dad took photographs. Syd got several great shots. I didn’t think we were going to get her back in the car.
Sunset happened around 8:45 pm and we were still quite a ways inside the canyon. We would not have cell service until we were out of the park. By this time, we were supposed to be in Sequoia and once again we had no hotel reservations. When we got back to Grant Village we asked if they had any rooms in the park but they did not. They let us use their phone to try and call Cindy at Snow Line Lodge and see if we could come back there. We couldn’t get through. We decided we would try driving that way and call as soon as we had some service. About 4 miles from the lodge we finally got through – it was 10:00 pm. Cindy said they had rented the room we were in the night before but that we could stay in one of the cabins they had. We were thankful to have anything at this time of night. She asked when we would be there and I told her we would be pulling up in about five minutes. The cabin worked out great. We had lots of room and Sydney could go to sleep while Brad worked on the computer in the other room.
We couldn’t have stayed somewhere that had nicer people than Snow Line Lodge. They are fixing it up little by little and it will really be nice when they get it done. The rooms were not even remotely fancy but very clean.
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Day 10 – Sequoia and back to San Francisco
Posted on 23. Jun, 2010 by Brad Cansler.
We had breakfast at the picnic area again and then set off for Sequoia National Park. We had a lot of ground to cover today. Not only did we want to see Sequoia (we were supposed to be here yesterday) we have to leave by 3:00 pm to get back to San Francisco because we have a 6:00 am flight to head back home in the morning. We stopped as several pretty spots along the way. There is no end to the beautiful areas through here.
The ranger at the visitor center made a great recommendation about where to park and hike. She suggested that we park at Crescent Meadow, take the shuttle to the General Sherman Tree and then hike back to our car. She also said that several people had seen bears on these hikes. It is about a three and a half mile hike through the forest and around the meadows. The General Sherman Tree is the largest living tree – by volume – in the world. We picked up a great post card that really gives you a perspective on size.
We took the Congress Trail and stopped at several of the named trees like, The President, The Senate, The House, and Sydney walked around inside The Room Tree. We really enjoyed the hike. We saw our first bear when we got to Circle Meadow. It was a light brown color and quite a ways from us. I would say it was a brown bear but you can’t call it a brown bear; all the bears here are supposed to be black bears – even in they look brown.
At the other end of Circle Meadow, we saw our next brown bear. We stopped to take some photographs and he was much closer to us. In fact, the trail that we were on would go right next to where he was. As we stood and watched, he started walking towards us. We walked slowly away, fortunately the path arched away from the bear. He was neat to see but that was close enough! As we crossed the meadow, there was another bear not far from us and as walked back into the forest, Sydney looked back spotted a large black bear. This makes bear four on our hike and number seven for the trip.
After we made it back, we drove to Moro Rock and hiked to the top. It is a steep 1/4 mile of 400 steps up and has a 300 foot rise. We were huffing and puffing – along with everyone else young and old but the view from the top was spectacular. You have a 360 degree view of everything from the snow capped mountains to the San Joaquin Valley toward Fresno.
When we came back down it was past time to leave. Instead of 3:00 pm, it was 5:00 pm and we had at least a five hour drive ahead of us – as long as we didn’t stop. We hoped we would hit San Mateo in time to eat at Poncho Villa again but it was 10:30 before we made it there and they closed at 10:00. Finally, we made it to our hotel by the airport. Our supper consisted of the warm chocolate chip cookies that the Double Tree gives you when you check in. Sydney ate her cookie and jumped in bed while I packed everything for the trip home and Brad copied off the photographs. Sometime way after midnight we were all in bed.
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Day 11 – Airports and Planes
Posted on 22. Jun, 2010 by Brad Cansler.
Planes, trains, and automobiles. Seems appropriate because we have been in all three so far this morning and it is not even 5:30 am. The check in line was packed with people but fortunately we are AA gold members and were able to get in the priority line. On the way out, our luggage was at the 49.5 lb weight limit. On the way back, I packed two pair of boots in Sydney’s carry on to try and keep us from going over. I don’t know how clothes get heavier during a trip – it must have something to do with being dirty. One suitcase was 49.5 and one was 52. The attendant was nice and let it slide.
We all agreed that this had been a terrific vacation and couldn’t wait to do it again. Next time I think we will stay the whole week in one place – maybe.
We boarded the plane, they closed the door and we were ready for take off. Well, maybe not. The pilot came on and said there a light on that was not supposed to be and they called maintenance to fix it. A few minutes later he said we were ok. But, we didn’t move. A few minutes later he said they had called maintenance back. After about 45 minutes, we taxied to the runway. We were still good on our connecting flight in Chicago. As we taxied into position to take off, you know how the plane is supposed to start going really fast down the runway until you finally are in the air. Ours didn’t. Instead, we taxied all the way back to the gate. Once again they called maintenance. By this time, we knew we were not going to make our connection in Chicago. We also knew there was only one Chicago to Chattanooga flight in the afternoon, so we didn’t know where we would be spending the night. We finally took off. There was no point to worry about it, we would get there when we got there and all that mattered is that we got home safe.
When we arrived in Chicago, AA had already re-booked us on a flight to Memphis, with a transfer to Delta from Memphis to Chattanooga. We grabbed a bite to eat in the Memphis airport at the Blue Note restaurant. We were all tired of trail mix and protein bars at this point.
Finally we made it home. When we got to Chattanooga, there was no luggage. This was no surprise. The bad part is no one knew where it was or which airline it was booked to come in on. We were just glad we made it home safely.
p.s. The luggage arrived a couple days later. Yea!
