National Park-to-Park Highway Tour 2010: Day 39

After a GREAT breakfast cooked by some of us (not me!), we headed out to Sequoia National Park. It's the home of General Sherman, the world's largest tree. Everyone is in--including Chrissy--and off we go!

One of the more interesting signs we've seen coming into a national park!

The road into Sequoia is a long and winding road. Unfortunately, they were working on the road, and it was one way for a long time with traffic held up for a long time! I took this picture from the top of the mountain where we were stopped. Look at the road winding all the way down:

But an even better view was this one from almost the same spot:

Gorgeous!

On further into the park!

We stopped at the visitor's center and museum. Here I found cards that identified the local flowers. Kathie and I could be seen matching flowers to the ones on the card!

The trees here are huge! Here are The Sentinels:

Notice the guy in the picture? Didn't know him, but it does give you some idea of how large these trees are. Yet...these aren't the largest!

On the ground is a series of metal tiles every 10 feet. They are marked as if you were walking on the tree and it was felled. Cassie went from the start to the finish and we couldn't see her. These trees are really huge!

Husband David asked me if I had taken a picture of the gnome and the elves. I thought he was pulling my leg, so I didn't go in search of them. Wish I had. A guy with an orange cone on his head and a fake white beard tied on passed me with several guys with dreadlocks dressed as elves. So strange!

On up the mountain! We see a viewpoint and get out to check it. Here we found some great flowers!

It looked as if it were carpeted in pink. We also saw pussypaws, lupine, cow parsnip, mountain pride, baby blue eyes, and many others we couldn't identify. It was beautiful here, but I kept thinking about bears. I'd been warned by friends about bears.

Here was mama and her two babies! She never would move into the sunshine, but I enjoyed watching them with the ranger who kept a careful eye on us and mama. You could park and watch, but couldn't block the road. I won't say how many times my husband circled a picnic area up the road, but he could give guided tours! The ranger told us they haze bears near the road to keep them protected, but they don't haze female bears with cubs--too many variables with that! She could run or attack. She didn't seem to mind us watching from a safe distance. I noticed that an asked the ranger if she was away of us. He said she was. At one point, she growled at the cubs and they started up a tree, but didn't stay long. Mama got tired and laid down and the cubs were having a great time climbing up and over her. She didn't seem to mind. More trees to see!

We drove right through one tree!

And walked through another! That's my brother David and his wife, Kathie.

And played on the rocks and trees! That's Cassie - grand-niece.

And hid in trees! Brother David and Cassie.

But here is what we came to see. The largest tree in the world and over 2,200 years old - General Sherman.

This tree is huge and beautiful! Imagine...it was alive while Jesus walked the earth. Mind boggling!

We were getting hungry, so we started down the long and winding road. It sopped near the top, so we got out and started taking pictures of the rocks and flowers.

Here is Mono Rock. There were people on top!