Sequoia's

After sleeping late and having a nice continental breakfast at the motel, we headed into Sequoia National Park.  We stopped at the Foothills Visitor Center took a look around and then continued down the Generals Highway to see old General Sherman himself.    

For a Monday, I was surprised by the crowds.  We were stopped for over a half hour on the way up for construction.  

Jam, traffic jam.

Tyler had to pick up litter for his Ranger badge.  There was plenty and Tyler and I had at it while the other people waiting in traffic just watched us.

Once we were moving again I caught the familiar smell of hot anti-freeze, Sugar Honey Ice Tea, I thought, not now not a good place to overheat.  Bumper to bumper on a one lane uphill road.  I was also worried about the rear end as I haven’t tended to the rear axle leak either.  All the interesting construction smells I attributed to the Jeep and drove on worried.

It happened quick, a huge cloud of steam and the road flooded with anti-freeze. 

Knot, General Sherman

I am glad it wasn’t us.   The car in front of us, nowhere near as old as ours blew a radiator hose I suspect.  I shut down the Jeep and got out.  If we didn’t move him, no one else was moving for a very long time.  There were no turnouts nearby, however a small gap in traffic waiting to descend the one lane road gave us just enough room.  One of the construction crew, a few other tourists and I pushed him to that space.  The road was now re-opened.  A Ranger was nearby and took care of them.

Interestingly, also is the prevalence of French, German and Russian accents.  Have Americans stopped visiting America’s Parks?  That said I was frustrated by the lack of Rangers as Tyler and I repeatedly saw people crossing over fences to get closer to the trees and trampling over the signs indicating areas the Park service is trying to re-vegetate.  One couple even let their boys climb aboard one of the fallen trees and carve their initials in the bark.  Tyler, being a Junior Ranger nearly 20 times over was equally annoyed and we both found it difficult not to loudly voice our displeasure while passing by.  We took some pictures of the offenders, so they would see us doing so.  I’ll delete them later but made us feel good at the time.

But I digress, the trees are amazing, too big to capture in the confines of one picture.  But here are some to enjoy….

We took the winding highway to the Kings Canyon Visitor Center where with the usual pomp and circumstance Tyler was awarded his (n+1) Junior Ranger Badge.  We then descended the dead end Kings Canyon Scenic Byway to the Sentinel campground.  We took site number 1.  That is how we roll. 

There is a funny group of campers near us.  They do not know how to make a fire as it is filling the campground with smoke.  They are using a battery powered mattress inflater to fan the flames, I mean smoke.  They also have had their generator droning on and on for over an hour.  Not sure what they are using over there, it is not dark enough for lights yet.

I thought we brought a lot of luxuries with us, but some of the people here erect mini tent cities.  The site below us has enough wood for two weeks of campfires, at least eight easy up canopies, stand alone tent shower, travel trailer camper and at least two actual tents on the ground.

Another Comanche appreciator just came by.  He had an ’88 4cyl 4spd manual short bed.  Cool.

I almost forgot, Tyler earned a Junior Ranger Night Explorer patch as well.  Very hard to find as not all parks offer it.  Bonus!