California Day 3: King's Canyon & Sequoia National Parks

I’m just going to be brutally honest.

Day 3 was rough.

Going into King’s Canyon Emma and I became horribly, horribly carsick. However, it was worth it because King’s Canyon was gorgeous! We arrived first thing in the morning, I mean, the Visitor’s Center wasn’t even open yet. So we were able to walk through a loop that showed us the General Grant tree. It was magnificent. The air was cold and crisp and invigorating. It was an amazing sparkling day. It’s hard to describe the dazzle that was in the day there.

There were hardly any people around the walking loop and it was so nice to be able to take our time. We were able to study the bark, the foliage of the sequoias, and just really take in all of the details of God’s creation.

Part way around the walking loop we came to a hollowed out felled sequoia that had even been used as a worker cabin back in the day! Nick and Cal enjoyed exploring and walking through it while Emma and I continued walking and taking photos with our cameras. Emma is turning into quite the shutterbug which is so fun to watch and encourage.

I should clarify that we walked and skated around the walking loop because half of the thing was downhill and complete ice. That’s always fun. Not. It was so icy we literally walked down it with Nick going before us and then saying “okay not put your foot there, now over there, now on top of that pile of snow and pivot to over there.” I’m sure years from now we’ll laugh at this. We made memories for sure.

After our near death experience on the ice (not really) we went to the visitor’s center where, you guys! The whole entire building was covered in snow. COVERED! It was a lot of snow. It made me feel like a wimp when I was back home complaining about 6 inches of snow back in Indiana. Yeesh.

Day 3 was slated for King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. They are connected and you can go from one park to another.

Except the road was closed due to snow.

This caused us to have to drive and hour and a half out of the way to get to Sequoia.

Then when we got to Sequoia we weren’t really AT Sequoia. Meaning that the Foothills Visitors Center is just that, in the foothills and then you drive for about an hour to the Giant Forest.

Once we hit about 4000 ft elevation it started to get foggy. Then about 5000 ft it got really foggy. And about 6000 ft it was scary foggy. We were driving on a one lane road around the mountain, winding and steeply rising. But we couldn’t see. Like at all. At all, at all. Zero visibility. It was the scariest thing ever. Couldn’t even see the hood of the car. Thankfully we crept on and saw a parking lot sign and dove into that area to wait out the fog. Or so I thought. Nick parked the car and said he thought it would be best if we just went back down the mountain since we couldn’t see the sequoias anyway.

I got out of that car.

There was no way I was going to be strapped back into that metal death trap to be dragged back down the mountain in zero visibility fog. Friends, your girl had a major anxiety attack. It was bad. I at one point told him he was going to have to just go back down without me, I would stay there and live on the mountain and wash my hair with rain water or something. I didn’t have a solid plan but at that moment I was legit serious, just leave me here, I am not going back down with y’all. Lord have mercy!

The trees looked so eerie and cool all at the same time with the fog.

I love this girl. This is her look when you tell her to touch the tree and to be in awe of nature. So funny!

Thankfully there was a museum right there. I felt like Bilbo Baggins walking along the mountain and stumbling upon a door. We were able to go check it out and while we were talking to a park ranger the fog lifted a teeny bit. Enough that we decided that since we were that close we should continue to drive higher to go see General Sherman, the World’s Biggest Tree. Sure enough by the time we got up to it the fog had lifted completely and it was a gorgeous crystal clear blue sky. It was so much fun to walk through the trees.

And then it was back down the mountain. It was getting lateish and we had to get going since Nick was to start working the next day…our fun days with him are done but it was so fun to have a little bit of time with him.

Side note here, the kids just love hanging out with him. I’m so proud of my guy. He works so hard to provide for his family and has the most integrity I’ve ever seen in, anyone! I just love him so much.

I did remember that on the way down the mountain we made a stop at Hospital Rock and saw the petroglyphs on the rocks. I barely remember this because I took a dramamine and felt like a tranquilized bear when we got to the rocks, ha.

On the way we came across a town called “Lindsay” and I was so excited that I made Nick get out and take a photo of me with the sign. My whole life I have had my name misspelled so it was so great to find a town with my name!!!

We headed back to LA and then to Ranch Cucamongo where we are to stay for the rest of the trip. After we unloaded the car (or minivan rather, the kids think it is the coolest thing ever to be driving around in a van) we went to eat at Lazy Dog Restaurant which was just what the doctor ordered after a long day of driving and hiking and exploring and freaking out! I had a margherita pizza, everyone had fish. WHICH by the way is the weirdest thing ever that our kids now all eat fish. God is good, y’all! I never thought that would ever happen but here we are.

Our last stop of the night was to the grocery store to pick up some food for lunch the next day. Do you know what our kids love to eat more than anything? Rice and Beans!

It was a bad day. It was a great day. I guess it’s all about perspective…and not getting stuck on the top of a mountain.

Onto Day 4 and whatever exploring we are able to do!

You can read all about our trip to Yosemite and you can read all about our first day in California! I hope you’re enjoying reading about our journey. Travel with family is one of the most rewarding things we can do in life!

California Day 2: Yosemite!

If you want our kids to successfully wake up at 6 am, I guess you have to be in a time zone that is 3 hours behind our time back home. This was the first time I’ve ever been able to wake them up without kicking and lots of yelling.

We all woke up and got ready. We ate breakfast in the hotel (can we all just say an Amen to how great it is when hotels have free breakfast???) We filled up our water bottles, loaded up our Trader Joe’s groceries into the car (for picnics) and headed to Yosemite!

I’m still kind of in awe that we are here. That all the way from Indiana we were able to come here to see Yosemite and California and all of this greatness! Yosemite is iconic. It’s the National Park that is on all the posters and park whatever you get. It was the first one, it is incredible. However because of the distance and the expense I never even considered planning a vacation out to here. But God did. ;)

Emma said “I’m very enchanted by California”. She thinks it is terrific. She loves the air and the weather and all of the rolling green hills.

It took us about an hour to get to Yosemite from Fresno where our hotel was. It was a nice drive. We were surprised by the amount of snow there was since in Fresno it was about 50 degrees. A huge change to say the least.

Then we had about another hour of a drive to get to the visitor’s center in Yosemite. We took our time and meandered along. We stopped and took pictures, we enjoyed the views.

The first place that we stopped was my absolute favorite and it wasn’t even anything nature! It was the historic hotel, The Wawona Hotel. It was amazing you guys and it wasn’t even open! It was so cool to walk around and to look in the windows (yes I’m a weirdo like that!). It reminded me a lot of the resort in Dirty Dancing. You know the one.

After that we kept going and stopping along the way. We stopped at the Wawona Campsite to stretch our legs. The kids LOVED playing along the rushing river and climbing over huge felled redwoods. There is nothing better for a Wild and Free Momma then to see her kiddos playing in nature.

We did see lots of aftermath of forest fires. It was sad and very desolate looking. It reminded us a lot of the way the Smoky Mountains were looking last year when we visited.

As we traveled on and on it kept getting foggier and foggier. When we got to Tunnel View we were so excited! We drove through the Tunnel, the view opened up and…

There was nothing.

Nothing.

It was just fog.

Fog, fog, and more fog. Oy.

We got out to take some photos and then back in the car to keep driving. I felt a little bit like we had driven to Walley World to find it was closed…

Our next stop was at Bridalveil Fall. It was a gorgeous waterfall. We made the hike or skating up to the falls and everything was frozen from the spray. It was a slippery trek but we all had lots of fun and lots of laughs along the way.

Once we reached the Yosemite Valley the fog had cleared and we were able to see more.

We stopped in the Visitor’s Center to get the kids their Junior Ranger books. Their Ranger program is intense you guys! The kids had to go to a Ranger talk, pick up a back of trash, go on a scavenger hunt, and fill out the book. Whew! It was a lot to do but the kids learned a lot. They have two museums to enjoy, one is in the Visitor’s Center and the other is on its own called Yosemite Museum.

Before we went to that one though we went and had some lunch. We took our picnic lunch to the Majestic Hotel. It was, well, Majestic. It was quite fun to walk around and see what we could discover. They have some beautiful decorations and furnishings. Gorgeous, you guys!

In the Yosemite Museum is where we met with a Ranger and she was making a beaded necklace. It was super fun to watch. There was also an Indian Village to go through. We learned so much just through reading the signs, particularly about the foods they ate and the way that they prepared them.

By this point I thought Yosemite was nice but I couldn’t say that I was in LOVE with it. You know, what I mean? I mean, we went to the gift shop and everyone was grabbing items like it was Super Market Sweep and I was just kind of “meh” about it all.

But then we kept going!

We took a shuttle bus to the Lower Yosemite Falls area and walked down to the falls. It was amazing you guys! It was incredible. Breathtaking,

And after that I was in love with Yosemite. And fairly certain that our kids are weird.

From the Lower Yosemite Falls we took a stroll to the Yosemite Valley Lodge area which was really neat too. There are lots of outbuildings to stay in and then there is the lodge with a cool place to eat, Base Camp Eatery. So neat! And they had a Starbucks, praise the Lord because by this time ( I think it was about 4) this Momma was fading fast! That cup of hotel coffee from breakfast had worn off a long time ago.

The Lodge is on the shuttle loop stops so we were able to hop on the shuttle to go back to the Visitors Center to our car.

We then started back towards Fresno. On our way back out the fog had lifted enough that we could take in El Capitan and then we stopped at Tunnel View to get a better, well, view ;) There was a little funny thing at El Capitan. We stopped to get pictures and the face of this mountain just goes straight up, it’s incredible. I said “look you guys, there are people on the top! People climbed it!” There was a brief pause and then quietly from the backseat Cal says “um, those are trees”. And he was right. They were trees. ha.

On the way out of the park we came across 4 deer that were grazing next to the road. They were so pretty! I am pretty sure these are mule deer that we had learned about at the Visitor’s Center. We only have white-tailed deer in Indiana so it was very interesting to see another type of deer. They are so cute, especially the little baby one! Can I just take it home? Will it fit in my carry on? Please?

There was a ton we didn’t get to see either because of the weather or because of our lack of time. The Mariposa Grove was closed. Glacier Point was closed. There was lots of roads that were closed because of the snow. But we’re so happy with what we got to do. We feel like we got to see quite a bit and experienced the grandeur of Yosemite. And that, right there was the point.

By the time we reached our hotel back in Fresno we all were pretty beat and decided pizza in the hotel room while watching an American Pickers episode sounded pretty great.

We are having such a great time. Every place we go we are able feel this sense of awe and thankfulness that we are there.

Planning our Trip to Georgia

I shared before how I plan our family roadtrips in order to get the most out of them for the least amount of money.

I wanted to share with you now how I am planning our next trip to Georgia.

I chart our route and looked for larger cities that we will be passing through.

I see that we are going through Lexington, Kentucky and Knoxville, Tennessee. I have nothing relatable in my head about either one of those places (do you guys? Do I just live too sheltered of a life?) so I Pinterest them to see what there is to do.

It looks like in Lexington there are some horse race type parks to check out but nothing that is screaming “us” so I’m moving on. I will also point out Lexington is about 4 hours from our house. I want to make sure we cover some distance in the first day of our trip so Lexington is about the closest place I would be willing to go to. Otherwise we’ll have too much traveling to do the next day as we make our way to Georgia.

So the next place I’m going to look up is Knoxville.

There look to be some things but I am not sure if that is where I want to be for very long. We are after all driving through so we don’t have a lot of time to spend.

I now check out our memberships’ reciprocal programs. We have memberships through the ASTC and the AZA. I see that there is a zoo in Knoxville that looks promising but we still have to pay 50%. That’s a great deal, don’t get me wrong, but I just want to make sure that that is something we commit to do with our time. After all, a zoo takes a large chunk of time to go through.

I check out the National Parks website and, duh! I see that Knoxville is just a hop, skip and a jump a way from the Smoky Mountains National Park. BINGO!

I think we might go that way. We love hiking and exploring so going that route ensures lots of fresh air, exercise, and it’s darn near free.

In case you’ve never been to the Smoky Mountains, it is near Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. This is a really neat area but a huge tourist area that makes it really hard to stay on budget. I am sure we will do some things there but we try to steer clear of this area. An example of the area is when we went mini golfing. We went to a scabby kind of place with flaking paint and it was $60 for the four of us. Seriously. That is why we try to plan carefully what we do in the area and we look for budet friendly items.

The Smoky Mountains park spans over 800 square acres over North Carolina and Tennessee. While it is technically one park there are several sections and areas of the park including Cades Cove, Cataloochee, Clingmans Dome, and more. While there are lots of things to do I think we are going to be focusing on the Cades Cove area.

Cades Cove offers some of the best opportunities to spot wildlife. When we’ve been through the Smokies before we have spotted deer, bears, elk, and coyotes. We like Cades Cove because of the settlement you can explore as well as the nature. We’ve never had a lot of time to explore the area though, so I think that will be a perfect option for us.

We are so excited for our trip and can’t wait to get to the mountains!!!

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I hope this kind of “me talking outloud to you helps you to see the madness behind my method for planning our trips. I can try to do this with another trip if it helps you! Let me know, friends!