When planning this trip, we tried to make our return trip just as fun as the Route 66 side. We tried to see other states and sites on the way back than we did on the way to California. We plotted on a map the places that would be under 7 hours from each other in the hopes that we could see something once there. This first day out of LA, was just that. We only had about 3 and a half hours from LA to Three Rivers, CA, but with a little tweaking to the route to get there, we were able to drive through Sequoia National Park! This added several hours to the trip, but we would be able to see some gorgeous sites along the way and make as many stops as we wanted.
The drive from LA to the northern entrance of Sequoia National Park was very interesting. It was mostly interstate until Bakersfield, but once outside of the city we started to see the groves of fruit and nut trees. This reminded me of my Dad, because he always said that California was the home of the fruits and nuts, but I don't think he was talking about food. I always thought of California as the home of the Freaks and Geeks, haha. There is a lot more to California than the big cities, though, and we found it.
Once we finally made it to the entrance of the park, it was lunch time. We stopped off and got Jon a burger and us a sub and found a picnic area to sit and enjoy the much cleaner air! We found our first sequoia there, well, a stump of one anyways. It dwarfed Jon.
We got to Kings Canyon and stopped off to look out at the mountains and the canyon below. It was absolutely gorgeous! Jon even found a rock that he wanted to climb. I have to say, I am really proud of him for this. He isn't normally this "sporty", and when he tried two different angles at climbing it that didn't work, he didn't give up. He tramped through some brush and found a way that he could make it. To see how proud of himself he was, it made me so proud!
We crossed over into Sequoia and we started to see the Giant Trees. Simply breathtaking!
As we drove a little further, we found the pull-off for the trail to the General Sherman tree. This is the largest tree in the world. It isn't the tallest, and it isn't the biggest around, but when you figure up the volume of this tree, it makes it the largest one anywhere! To stand in the shadow of this tree, to know that we are witnessing a living thing that makes us humans look like ants, it so unbelievable. I recommend seeing this tree in person, as no photo can do it justice.
Once we got a ride back to the parking lot on the shuttle, we made our way out of the park on the Three Rivers side. This drive was awesome! The switchbacks, the steep grades, the sight of a bear off in the distance, every part of it was fun! Check out the GPS and the map from my phone to see just what I mean. We had to take the whole drive, a little over 16 miles, in the low gear and it took almost an hour to drive it!
Three Rivers is a beautiful town, very small, but just what we like. We had dinner at a pizza place, one of only a handful of places to grab a bite, but Jon had a good time with the napkins there!
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