Road Trip to Awesomeness - Day Two

This was a long, diverse day, so prepare to be rather overwhelmed by my enthusiasm via photos.  We had been super-blessed to find an available cabin in Kings Canyon's Grant Grove, so we didn't have to drive the hour-plus out to our reserved hotel, and that gave us more time to see the Parks.  A gift!

Our little cabin is the one on the left.  A room with two beds all made up, and a bureau.  Simple.  No lights.  No heat.

This was me in front of the bath-house, which, of course, I had to get up and use at 3 a.m.  It was rather nice to see the stars.

We took a morning hike to the Panoramic Overlook.

One slice of the panorama; Hume Lake and King's Canyon section.

This front ridge hides one fork of Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon with Hume Lake showing.

At the helpful signage overlooking Kings Canyon

Funny growths on a dead tree.  There were an alarming number of dead trees in the big forests.

Wild penstemon on the rocks

Funny tree

We drove around in Wilsonia in honor of Uncle Edwin, who lived and worked here in the Grants Grove for three years when he was younger.  Jeffery remembers visiting Edwin there.

We take this wonderful hike before we leave the Kings Canyon National Park

This big tree greets you immediately along the way

The same tree on the sunny side

Me on one of the huge stumps

Jeffery on the Mark Twain stump, which is big enough to serve as a dance floor.

Me seen by Jeffery from atop the Mark Twain tree.

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The Cathedral stump; see Jeffery in it?

What it looks like inside

I am standing at the foot of the back side of the Cathedral stump.  Looks like a rock wall, eh?

Tiny flowers in the meadow.  I found violets growing there, too.

We lunched in the meadow where the old lumber mill used to be.

Dogwoods 

Looking up a tree

Found this along-side one of the vista pullouts

We made one, too.  (not in this photo)

The vista we stopped to see

Entering Sequoia National Park.  

beautiful flowers carpet the area

The paving stones outline the footprint of the General Sherman tree, which we are overlooking from this spot.

The top of the General Sherman.  It took 5 photos to capture the whole length of the tree.

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Jeffery at the foot of the General Sherman tree

Me at the foot of the largest living thing on the planet.

Finally got back far enough to get the whole General Sherman tree into one photo

The twin trees

Moro Rock, and the stairway that takes you up 300 ft of rock to stand 4000 ft. above the valley floor.

The path is in the dark shadow, and I am sweating with vertigo as I climb.

Such a view!

I love mountains!

We're not even at the top yet

The Great Western Divide!

Looking west from near the top

We made it to the top!

This was the test of bravery; to walk out onto the point.  

Going down now!

Jeffery heads down, too.

Trying to show how steep the climb is.

We have driven the winding road and now look back up to see Moro Rock above us.

Moro Rock.  You can just barely make out the stairs on the left flank of the rock.

We headed to our hotel in Tulare (near Visalia, if that means anything to you) and crashed hard after a pizza dinner.  More to come........